Film Review: Not Easily Broken
Dave Johnson (Morris Chestnut) has always dreamed of becoming Major League Baseball player, but, after getting injured, he settles for being a little league baseball coach.
He and his wife, Clarice (Taraji P. Henson) are past the honeymoon point of their marriage and the love they once had for each other is being tested. Clarice can’t resist nitpicking at Dave about buying a better truck, spending time coaching his little league team and letting him know at every opportunity that she is the primary breadwinner. She not only makes more money than her husband, she has also recently been named salesperson of the year.
Dave is also impatient to start a family after ten years of marriage, while materialistic Clarice just wants to make more money in order to be able to continue to afford to live in the lap of luxury.
It doesn’t help that Dave barely has a relationship with his mother-in-law Mary (Jenifer Lewis) who hardly gives him credit for anything and constantly uses her influence over Clarice to drive a wedge between them.
As their marriage begins to fall apart, they argue with one another and, during one of those arguments, Dave has a car accident with her in the passenger seat.
That car accident leaves her seriously injured at the hospital and requiring physical therapy, but Dave miraculously only leaves with a few scratches and bruises. At the hospital, he bumps into Clarice’s mother, Mary (Jenifer Lewis), who blames him for the accident claiming that if he weren’t in rush to get home from work, it wouldn’t have happened.
Clarice doesn’t have the courage to stand up to her overprotective, controlling mother, though, and lets her how to deal with her husband. Why can’t Dave and Clarice just talk like two mature, open adults? Dave almost goes through a midlife crisis when he meets Julie (Maeve Quinlan), Clarice’s physical therapist who also happens to be the mother of one of the children who Dave coaches. She also happens to be attractive, single and flirtatious with him.
Thus, “Can this marriage be saved?” is the question at the heart of the film. And although there are humorous asides, they in no way interfere with the ability of the modern parable to drive home a message about the sanctity of marriage.
