Magnolia Pictures

Woman Thou Art Loosed is a misnomer. Titling this film Movie Thou Art Disturbing, Depressing, Not Very Uplifting Nor Powerful At All! would be far more appropriate.

This adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes’ book, Woman Thou Art Loosed, is about a woman’s struggle with her demons both emotional and literal. The main character, Michelle, played by Kimberly Elise, is raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of 12, and cannot reconcile her painful past with her spiritual quest for God. She faces this conflict after her first stint in jail—she was arrested for either drug abuse, prostitution or all of the above: the incoherent script never clarifies and, honestly, no audience could really care less about these particulars. The point of this movie is to illustrate a fable rather than sticking close to a comprehensible scenario.

To Elise’s credit, she does as much as possible with such a weak script, but every actress would falter in scenes such as when her love interest asks her to tell stories from her time in jail, and she responds jokingly, “I was getting raped in the shower and a woman was pulling my leg, just like I’m pulling yours.” No, I’m not making that up. That is an actual line in the film. This dialogue may have in fact been the best and the worst sequence in Woman Thou Art Loosed.

This movie should not be released in theatres. It should not even go straight to DVD or VHS. It should be overnight Fed-Ex’ed to Lifetime, where they can show it over and over again in their next “Girl Has a Troubled Childhood, and Her Life Is Filled with Rape, Drugs, Prostitution and Murder Movie Marathon.” It would fit right in with their nightly line-up.

At least Jakes’s story managed to tackle a lot of important issues in the 96-minute film. It touches on issues arising from rape, child abuse, child molesting, domestic violence, adultery, alcoholism, denial, various forms of illicit substance abuse, prostitution, and of course, murder. And for the sake of providing some hope, there are five or six extensive sermons by the bishop himself.

If waking up early on weekends to watch Jakes on The Church Channel is your thing, then I would give this movie five stars and never believe any of your stories about prison rape. If it is not, then I would highly recommend avoiding this one. Even with all of Michelle’s depressing life experiences, I was expecting some sort of happy ending, but no sign of redemption ever arrives.

However, she does make a house out of popsicle sticks that has a door and a window that is supposed to symbolize hope and internal peace. Despite tremendous artistry and skill, I must say that I did not feel that peace or the hope of that window and door. I just felt kind of disturbed, annoyed and unhappy that I had spent two hours watching the film.

So filmgoers, skip this one. You’ll regret seeing it. And if you want to see it, just wait until it gets to Lifetime, if it’s even good enough to make the rigorous damsel-in-peril screening process.

–Theodore B. Bressman