When last we visited the Tyler Perry world of marriage (a world intriguingly devoid of Perry’s signature creation, Madea), Sheila (Jill Scott) had kicked the womanizing Mike (Richard T. Jones) to the curb in favor of Colorado sheriff Troy (Lamman Rucker), a do-right man ready and willing to treat her right. Perry is cinema’s version of Terry McMillan, and he returns to these three and their buppified friends three years later for more bonding, emotional beating and questioning about the institution of marriage sweetened with broad humor that rubs abrasively up against the drama leaving raw narrative sores that any competent screenwriter would treat with better transitional balms.

Perry, who began his career on the chitlin’ theater circuit with morality plays that aimed for the back rows of black churches and community theaters, has made strides as a filmmaker with each movie. Yet the laughs that targeted the back rows required audience participation to feed the performers onstage, to puff up the glorious righteousness of these stereotypes into something resembling three-dimensional characters.

His next project, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, will be a real stretch that just might teach him a thing or two about how to balance story and character along with humor and drama. Unions of thought and theme are vital to longevity in the film industry, and without solid foundations, you end up with bitterness and acrimony and questions like, “Why did I pay all this money to see another crappy Tyler Perry movie?” Grade: D