Spoiler Alert: This Review Contains a Plot Summary!
The word Acrimony refers to bitterness, anger, resentment, ill feeling, bad blood, and animosity. Tyler Perry takes audiences on a journey through emotional turmoil and the evils of revenge with his newest film Acrimony. The movie stars Taraji P. Henson as Melinda Gayle and Lyriq Bent as her ex-husband Robert Gayle.
Acrimony opens with a courtroom scene where a sour-faced Melinda glares angrily across the room at Diana, her husband’s new wife. Melinda is staring hard enough that she becomes hypnotized by her rage, phasing out the voice of the judge who is speaking to her. When she snaps out of her trance the judge is asking her if she understands the implications of her recent behavior.
The judge, who seemed annoyed by Melinda’s non-compliance, suggests one last option so that she does not end up in jail, his suggestion is seeing a psychiatrist. A bewildered, confused, and annoyed Melinda reluctantly agrees to the judge’s terms as serving jail time would ruin her plans for revenge. The scene shifts to Melinda sitting in a psychiatrist’s office where she begins to take us into the source of her rage and her relationship with Robert.
Melinda and Robert met in college, where they became inseparable despite her sisters’ wishes to break up them up. Fast forward eighteen years later, Melinda and Robert are in a lifeless marriage, struggling to hold on. Robert is in the basement of their home still working on his invention that can be used to power homes while Melinda is going to work at the office day after day. Each day they follow the same routine like clock-work and as the time goes by Robert still hasn’t made progress on getting his invention sold. Melinda is the bread winner and has been faithful and supportive to Robert all this time but each day she gets closer and closer to giving up on him. Robert promised Melinda that once his battery sold they would be rich and he would buy her a yacht, a big diamond ring and so much more but almost two decades later his promises have yet to be fulfilled.
Things go from bad to worse after Melinda finds another woman’s belongings in Roberts truck. She also finds out that he turned down a substantial amount of money from an investor that could have been used to avoid foreclosure on their home. Melinda kicks Robert out and cuts him off for good. She would soon come to regret this decision when Robert becomes a millionaire after his design is bought by a big company. He marries the woman who helped him land the deal.
Melinda becomes clouded by a red hot rage when she finds out about Robert’s millions. She wants vengeance on Robert for giving another woman everything she felt was hers. Another woman was living her life and Melinda was determined to take it back. Melinda becomes obsessed with Robert’s new life and the feelings of pain, hurt, and betrayal eat away at her being like fire burning a building. Every day Melinda’s mind is warped with visions of the alternate reality she and Robert could have had and the pain consumes her to the point of no return.
Melinda goes so far off the grid that her family and friends become concerned, cautioning her to forget about Robert and move on, but the pain won’t subside, no matter how hard she tries it whispers in her ear and rolls down her spine beckoning her to seek vengeance. In the end Melinda gets her vengeance but she may have lost the thing she wanted most.
