History Film / DiaryOfAMadBlackWoman

Helen (Kimberly Elise) and Charles [=McCarter=] (Steve Harris) had everything: fine home, beautiful clothes and success. In public, they were the perfect match. But behind the scenes was another matter. On what should have been the end of the happiest day of their lives, Charles evicts Helen, his wife of 18 years, from their house in the presence of his mistress. She moves in with her grandmother, Madea (Tyler Perry). Helen then goes from meek and mild to mad, starts a diary and a new life, and meets a new man, Orlando (Shemar Moore).

* UngratefulBitch: Brenda. [[spoiler: After Charles is paralyzed, she almost immediately opts to have them terminate his life support if need arise, but since Helen was still technically Charles' wife that decision was turned down. Brenda later fired the staff of Charles' house, cleaned out his bank account, took their two children, and abandoned him.]]

** To be fair to Helen, she tried to get pregnant multiple times but has stated she had at least two miscarriages as a result of the stress Charles has caused her.

* UglyGuyHotWife: Guess.
* UngratefulBastard: Charles.
** [[UngratefulBastard Ungrateful Bitch]]: Brenda. [[spoiler: After Charles is paralyzed, she almost immediately opts to have them terminate his life support if need arise, but since Helen was still technically Charles' wife that decision was turned down. Brenda later fired the staff of Charles' house, cleaned out his bank account, took their two children, and abandoned him.]]

->''"This is like watching an [[Film/ErnestPWorrell Ernest]] movie and having 10 minutes of Ernest with an hour and a half of melodrama about abortions."''
-->--'''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Miles Antwiler]]''' [[http://moviemoses.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/diary-of-a-mad-black-woman-darren-grant-2005/ on]] the Madea character

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: After being shot and paralyzed by his drug dealer client, cleaned out financially by his mistress before leaving him, tortured by his scorned wife for the wrong he has done to her, Charles [[HeelRealization realizes the error of his ways]] and apologizes to Helen. Afterwards, he begins to rehabilitate, along with Helen's help, in [[RecoverySequence a montage]]. At church, he even confesses his sins and [[Literature/TheBible turns to God]].]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: The second half of the movie is pretty much every rotten thing Charles has done coming back to bite him in the ass. [[spoiler: His dealings with criminal clients leads to him getting paralyzed, his mistress Brenda leaves him to die and takes both his money and their kids without telling him, and when he has the nerve to still treat Helen like trash even after she tries to help him, Helen finally decides to get even. She delivers a massive TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about how being married to him was no picnic on her end but she at least tried to make it work, whereas he stopped caring. The stress he gave Helen caused her, among other things, two miscarriages. After returning the next day she dumps him into a hot bath and starts expressing further grievances. When it looks like Charles is trying to drown himself, Helen stops him, and then later eats dinner in front of him. As Charles is crying for the maid, Helen takes great joy in telling him that his bitch girlfriend didn't pay the staff so they all quit, and then took their kids and some of Charles' things and left. She then tosses her plate of food at Charles and leaves.]]

** [[UngratefulBastard Ungrateful Bitch]]: Brenda. [[spoiler: After Charles is paralyzed, she almost immediately opts to have them terminate his life support if need arise, but since Helen was still technically Charles' wife that decision was turned down. Brenda also fired the staff of Charles' house, cleaned out his bank account, and abandoned him.]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diary_of_a_mad_black_woman_ver3_1655.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Would you believe that this was based on a christian-themed play?]]

A 2005 movie directed Darren Grant and starring Creator/TylerPerry, adapted from a stage play of the same name.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The film does a short but blatant riff on Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston after Judge Mablean Ephriam rules Helen and Madea's case:

* BrokenAesop: You know the moral about loving God and trusting Him with your life and problems and worshipping only Him that this movie tries to preach? Well, that gets broken by Madea of all people who told a tale about a man who used to abuse her who she was so angry with that even when she was at his ''funeral,'' she beat him down an extra two feet (from the six feet he was under already), all while proclaiming that she did it because sometimes "God waits too long" to answer our prayers or get revenge on those who we feel deserve it.

* DrugsAreBad: There is a plotline with Brian and his wife, Debrah, whose drug addiction has caused them some marital problems. Her drug habits and addictions had gotten so bad that Brian kicked her out of the house at the last straw. [[spoiler: Don't worry, she got better.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: After being shot and paralyzed by his drug dealer client, cleaned out finacially by his mistress before leaving him, tortured by his scorned wife for the wrong he has done to her, Charles [[HeelRealization realizes the error of his ways]] and apologizes to Helen. Afterwards, he begins to rehabilitate, along with Helen's help, in [[RecoverySequence a montage]]. At church, he even confesses his sins and [[Literature/TheBible turns to god]].]]

-->'''Madea:''' And i know whoop yo ass!

** [[UngratefulBastard Ungrateful Bitch]]: Brenda. [[spoiler: After Charles is paralyzed she almost immediately opts to have them terminate his life support if need arise, but since Helen was still technically Charles' wife that decision was turned down. Brenda also fired the staff of Charles' house, cleaned out his bank account, and abandoned him.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Charles, who not only cheated with a mistress(and possible other women), but had children with said mistress.

* ActingForTwo: Tyler Perry portrays Madea, Joe, and Brian, Helen's attorney cousin.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Steve Harris, who plays Charles, looks like the meanest person on the planet, but Tyler Perry said he was very friendly.

* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: Cicely Tyson and Kimberly Elyse have more than just a casual resemblance to each other.

A 2005 movie directed Darren Grant and starring TylerPerry, adapted from a stage play of the same name.

** Well it is understandable,[[spoiler: seeing how the original ending might have set a [[UnfortunateImplications bad precedence]] on [[DomesticAbuse abusive relationships]].]]

->''"This is like watching an [[Film/ErnestPWorrell Ernest]] movie and having 10 minutes of Ernest with an hour and a half of melodrama about abortions."''\\
--'''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Miles Antwiler]]''' [[http://moviemoses.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/diary-of-a-mad-black-woman-darren-grant-2005/ on]] the Madea character

* BreakTheCutie
* BreakTheHaughty
* BrokenBird: Helen starts to become this after her BreakTheCutie moment.

* TheMistress: She also had two kids for Charles and had no qualms about cleaning him out financially, letting him die in surgery rather then live as a cripple, and leaving him [[spoiler: after he was shot and paralyzed. She also took the kids with her.]]

* {{Revenge}}- [[spoiler: after Charles is shot by the gangster he was defending and is paralyzed, Helen gets revenge while taking care of him.]]

* RevisedEnding - [[spoiler: In the original play, Helen gets back together with Charles after his HeelFaceTurn. Though at the same time, Charles was ''considerably'' less of a {{Jerkass}} in the play.]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: The second half of the movie is pretty much every rotten thing Charles has done coming back to bite him in the ass. [[spoiler: His dealings with criminal clients leads to him getting paralyzed, his mistress Brenda leaves him to die and takes both his money and their kids without telling him, and when he has the nerve to still treat Helen like trash even after she tries to help him, Helen finally decides to get even. She delivers a massive TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about how being married to him was no picnic on her end but she at least tried to make it work, whereas he stopped caring. The stress he gave Helen caused her, among other things, two miscarriages.]]

** They do make a quick attempt to explain it (which is more than most movies do.) Charles put Helen through so much emotional turmoil, she couldn't eat, her weight yo-yo'ed and her hair even fell out. Probably not helpful to carrying a baby to term.

* VagueAge: Madea. Helen was married for 18 years, making her most likely around 36. Helen's mother says she was 39 when she had her, which would make ''her'' around 75. Being conservative, Madea has to be somewhere upwards of 90, which means she gets around awfully well for her age.
** It's possible Medea is Helen's ''paternal'' grandmother, and that Helen's father was somewhat younger than her mom. None of this is explained in the movie, however. Tyler Perry was just determined to get Cicely Tyson in his first feature film.
*** It's mentioned that Helen is the daughter of Madea's son, if not in this movie, then in the play I believe.

* InterruptedSuicide - Sort of. [[spoiler: After he's crippled, Charles, when thrown into a bathtub while being on the receiving end of yet ''another'' TheReasonYouSuckSpeech by Helen, attempts to drown himself in shame. Helen, however, [[{{Revenge}} had other plans for him.]]]]

A 2005 movie directed Darren Grant and starring TylerPerry.

* ActingForTwo: Tyler Perry portrays Madea, Joe, and Brian, Madea's attorney nephew.