Not Easily Broken (2009)

Director:

Bill Duke

Writers (WGA):

Brian Bird (screenplay)
T.D. Jakes (novel)

Release Date:

9 January 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel | Title Spoken By Character

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Morris Chestnut	...	Dave Johnson
Taraji P. Henson	...	Clarice Clark
Maeve Quinlan	...	Julie Sawyer
Kevin Hart	...	Tree
Wood Harris	...	Darnell Gooden
Eddie Cibrian	...	Brock Houseman
Jenifer Lewis	...	Mary 'Mama' Clark
Niecy Nash	...	Michelle
Cannon Jay	...	Bryson Sawyer
Albert Hall	...	Bishop Wilkes
Jeff Krebs	...	Trauma Doctor
Nathaniel Carter	...	Deshawn
Brendon Terrell Ferguson	...	Marcus (as Brendon Terrell)
Kwame Boateng	...	Darius
Henry Brown	...	Mr. Reid

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual references and thematic elements.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44059) | Finland:K-11 | Singapore:PG | Australia:M | New Zealand:M | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Screen Gems

Trivia:

The actor playing the trauma doctor is a real physician.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where the mother-in-law shows up at the hospital, Dave and the doctor come out of Clarice's room coming toward the camera. When the M.I.L. finds out where the room is, she takes off past the camera in the wrong direction.

Quotes:

Dave Johnson: Down through history men have always been measured by how hard they work and cultivated, how well the protected their wife and children. In the old days woman saw their man as conquerers, providers, heroes. But somewhere along the line that change, woman started to became their own hero...

Movie Connections:

Features "Days of Our Lives" (1965)

Soundtrack:

His Eye Is on the Sparrow

Men Do No Wrong, Ever?

While the film was engaging on many levels, I kept wondering what was not sitting right with me. The more I thought about it, I realized that the male lead in this film was painted as a long-suffering, perfect mate while his wife was the nagging, negligent, career driven failure. The turning point in the film and their marriage was when the female lead approached her husband and apologized for the failures in their marriage. While she had a lot to be sorry for, I've never seen such a one sided marriage in real life. Really, couldn't there be ONE thing the husband could be working on in the marriage? It's VERY unrealistic for such perfection in a human being. I say all this to say that this is what happens when a "female" driven drama (b/c that's the audience this film is hoping will show up) is produced, written, directed, shot and edited by men. Not that men couldn't not do a good job, but this is clearly an example where there was no female input to add balance to the story. On so many levels, it's very unrealistic if not just downright disturbing.