Woman Thou Art Loosed

When my girlfriend dragged me to this movie, I went with her to treat her to part of her Birthday present; but secretly, I was dreading to see this movie. I thought that here's another "Christian" made production, many of which seem to suffer from lack luster acting and weak direction.

None of those elements exist in this riveting drama based on the composite experiences of various women encountered by TD Jakes through out his ministry. From the stunning beginning of the movie to its hopeful and heart warming end, I was enthralled by the very realistic characters(especially the main character), their various struggles, and their varying Faith, or lack there of, in God.

This movie does not milk-toast the church or sugar coat those who are True Believers, but shows us for what we truly are; real sinners saved continually by real Amazing GRACE and the Great Mercy of God.

For those who think you have to be lilly white to be accepted by God, I highly recommend this movie as a big dose of reality. But for those who just see the church as full of hypocrites, you'll come away with an appreciation for how much God loves us imperfect beings and why the Church is full of us!

If you loved DEAD MAN WALKING as much as I did, then you'll also appreciate this prison-set film based on a book and a play by AME Bishop Jakes. Like Matthew Poncelet in Sr. Prejean's story, this one features a character who is a composite of several real life abused women whom the good bishop ministered to through the years. Michelle is on death row when Bishop Jakes visits her. At first she almost ignores him as she works on a model house made up of match sticks or small pieces of wood. She had not expected him to come, he being so big time--his face was on the cover of TIME Magazine--but it soon appears that their paths have crossed before and that her mother is one of the clerks who works in his evangelism campaign. Before going any further I should reassure any readers made nervous by the fact that a real-life bishop is a main character, that this is not one of those syrupy Billy Graham films. It is an unabashedly religious, no, a Christian film, but it is gritty in its realistic detailing of drug addiction, child abuse, prostitution and such, well deserving of its R rating. It is a compelling story of a woman's descent into hell and of her slow journey back. The cast is excellent, with Bishop Jakes playing himself--not just in the pulpit, but in some intense scenes in Michelle's prison cell that demand more than pulpit oratory. In another life he could have made it as an actor. The crew members are all Hollywood pros, so the production values are excellent. A neat symbol is the house on which Michelle labors so long over--it is the last thing we see before the fade to black and the credits roll, so it serves as a good symbol (far better than the full scale house in LIFE AS A HOUSE). There are plenty of interesting male, as well as female characters, so you shouldn't look at this as a "woman's film," nor as an African American one. Exploring the terrible damage those close to us can do to one another, and of the almost impossibility of forgiveness, it's a film that I will be thinking about for some time to come.

Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004) is a movie currently available on Tubi. The storyline follows a young lady's journey through an abusive and troubled childhood and how that led to addiction and legal challenges. As she looks for redemption, she explains to her pastor how she got here to determine if there's any hope for redemption.

This movie is directed by Michael Schultz (Cooley High) and stars Kimberly Elise (For Colored Girls), Loretta Devine (Crash), Clifton Powell (Rush Hour), T. D. Jakes (Lost Easily Horizons) and Porscha Coleman (Maneater).

The storyline for this picture had a Tyler Perry feel to it in a lot of ways. Elise delivers an amazing performance, and she really captured the character, trials and tribulations to perfection. She was tough, emotional and determined all at the same time. The circumstances also felt authentic as are the character's reactions. Devine and Powell were also fantastic in their roles. There are a lot of important messages in here and the twists and turns of the story was authentic and powerful.

Overall, this is a very well put together picture with a worthwhile storyline and great acting. I would score this an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

This movie has such a powerful message! Kimberly Elise does a superb job as abuse victim Michelle Jordan whose life went spiraling down a black hole after her "innocence was stolen" by her mother's lowdown-dirty-snake-of-a-boyfriend and her mother turning her back on the situation. I watched this movie with my 13yr old daughter and it made me want to hold her even closer to me than I already do because I can't imagine her going through something like that. Loretta Divine also does an excellent job as her selfish-in-denial-but-ever-"man-hungry" mother. Debbie Morgan is superb as the humorous, comforting, and advising family friend and Clifton Powell couldn't be anymore convincing as the snake-in-the grass boyfriend. T.D. Jakes put together a stellar cast to bring such a moving and powerful story to the big screen. There are so many lessons taught in this movie as well as learned. The character of Michelle is trying to deal with trust issues from her standpoint as well as others. In the scene where she has been ushered to a seat at church and the lady usher sees that she is wearing an electronic monitoring device on her ankle and then she asks her did she take a Bible and Michelle gets very upset and gives an upsetting reply. Then Michelle sees that others are taking and using the Bibles to study during the service and she realizes what the lady meant. Although it doesn't end all "warm and fuzzy", it is a must-see for anyone who is battling with or seeking forgiveness.

Overall I thought the movie was good. The first time I saw it I came late to the theater and missed the give away beginning.. So at the end I was like "wow" what a shock, this was great then to my dismay when I saw it again I watched from the beginning and realized it was only a shock to me. The lead actress did a wonderful job and I would like to see her recognized for it. To the person who wrote about being happy they didn't buy the book, your missing out T.D. Jakes has great insight and the book/books are about more then what this movie touched on. I went to a T.D. Jakes seminar at the forum and by the end of the night there wasn't one dry eye in the place.