This 2008 movie written, directed and produced by Tyler Perry is about the inner workings of two families—one upper crust and the other working class—that become inextricably linked by scandal. Wealthy socialite Charlotte Cartwright and her dear friend Alice, a working-class woman of high ideals, have enjoyed a lasting friendship throughout many years. Suddenly, their lives become mired in turmoil as their adult children's extramarital affairs, unethical business practices and a dark paternity secret threaten to derail family fortunes and unravel the lives of all involved. There are a lot of spoilers here due to the nature of the movie.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Law / Artistic License – Economics: The way that Chris found Andrea's hidden money is mostly to advance the story; it's not permitted by a bank to tell a customer about an account unless he is specifically on that account, and if the teller slipped up by saying "which account" and he acts like he doesn't know it's there, she can't tell him what's in the account if he's not on it with permission to access it. She would be in hot water once Andrea returned to the bank and found the money withdrawn by someone without permission to access it. Andrea is definitely the kind of woman who would press charges against the teller that exposed her account if Chris indeed was not listed as someone with permission to access it.
- Bait-and-Switch: Two examples.
- One is when Charlotte takes Alice to a strip club even though she knows Alice is an extremely Christian woman who doesn't agree with Charlotte's impulsive behavior. She sits there with her purse trying not to look at the handsome, half-naked men, and one of them notices, and comes closer. At first, it seems like Alice is starting to enjoy the lap dance...then she reaches into her purse and sprinkles holy water on the male stripper, who then backs off.
- Not long after Abigail is hired, William slithers up near her and starts to flirt with her as if he intends to try to bed her into being a compliant worker who will give him what he wants. At first, she doesn't reject him outright, then she pointedly mentions her husband and William drops the act, realizing he can't sneak his way into another affair to benefit his career.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Averted in the case of Andrea. Andrea is played by the stunning Sanaa Lathan, but she's so cruel and heartless that it's near impossible to appreciate her outward lovely appearance.
- Cassandra Truth: Andrea doesn't listen to her mother and sister's warnings that William won't leave his wife for her. She should have.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Nick. Both Andrea and Pam are dismissive of him due to their own biases about homeless people, but Alice treats him with respect and dignity, before and after he became homeless. Turns out, he had been her financial advisor for years, allowing her to invest in Charlotte's company as a partner and wind up a multimillionaire. He had also been with the company until William, who was the boss at the time, had fired him, setting off his Trauma Conga Line.
- Cool Old Lady: Charlotte isn't a nice woman per se, but she's definitely a badass.
- Alice plays it more straight with a good head on her shoulders and is the heart of his family.
- Driven to Suicide / Dying As Herself: Charlotte when she takes a deadly combo of pills, her reasons being that she has Early-Onset Alzheimers.
- Establishing Character Moment: Andrea's first appearance in the film has her complaining about her wedding dress, Charlotte's generosity (since she doesn't think it's genuine), and even her mother's close friendship with her. This angers Pam greatly due to how close she is to their mother.
- Evil Matriarch: Played with in the character Charlotte, but ultimately averted.
- Faux Affably Evil: William. Even with his smooth demeanor and voice, he has no problem trying desperately and failing to push his own mother out of the company she built, cheating on his wife with Andrea for several years without being caught and impregnating them both! and belittling the newly-hired and competent COO just because she's more interested in doing what's best for the company's future than being his yes woman.
- Foil: Abby and Andrea. Abby worked hard to get where she is and is very loyal and honest to Charlotte. Andrea looks down on everyone and has no qualms with sleeping with William to get what she wants while feeding delusions of grandeur. Abby flat out tells Andrea "It is sisters like you that give us all a bad name."
- Foreshadowing: At one point, Pam is upset about how greedy Andrea is and how the low amount of profit that Alice took in for the week causes her to say that "she broke her back" trying to keep the business afloat while also supporting Andrea through college. To this, Alice insists that her back is not broken. You would think she's saying that because she's a Determinator through hardship (which she is), but it's also because she is secretly pretty wealthy and at this point now runs the restaurant because she enjoys it.
- At one point, Charlotte mentions that she was divorced twice but Alice reminds her that she was divorced three times, to which she says, "Oh, I tried to forget that one." Charlotte's memory problems come up later again when she's trying to get her camera to work, whereupon, after handing it to Alice, she tells her that she has early-onset Alzheimer's.
- Freudian Excuse: Andrea and Pam's father walked out on his family and left them in dire poverty, resulting in Andrea eventually becoming obsessed with money and social standing.
- Happily Married: Subverted for both Chris and Jillian; both of them believe that their respective marriages are, but they really aren't. Played straight with Ben and Pam as well as Abigail and her husband.
- Henpecked Husband: Andrea's husband Chris, and it is not Played for Laughs. She emasculates him at every single opportunity and viciously shoots down any attempts of his to be a loving man towards her. If anything, it doesn't stop short of abusive.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners:
- Charlotte and Alice, having a close friendship that has lasted decades.
- Ben and Chris, who are implied to become friends through their shared military backgrounds before becoming best friends through their marriages to sisters Pam and Andrea.
- Jerkass: William Cartwright, goes without saying. He's cold, distant, greedy, overly ambitious, and a cheater, on top of using people for his own means and trying to get his mother, Charlotte, out of her company. He also doesn't react to the possibility that may have a son with Andrea. To make it worse, apparently, he wants to be like his father, which raises few questions.
- Andrea. She is rude to everyone around her but William and is emotionally abusive to her husband Chris. She has no redeeming qualities and only a paper thin excuse for her behavior: the girls' father abandoned them and her mother had to raise them in poverty, so Andrea became obsessed with never being broke again. Guess what happens by the end?
- Idiot Ball: Even when the truth was staring him right in the face, Chris still is blissfully unaware of Andrea's cheating.
- Laser-Guided Karma: William loses control of his company and Andrea finally gets called out for the affair, William leaves her, and she ends up alone, unemployed, broke, and living in a low-rent apartment, forced to rely on child support payments from Chris to survive, essentially all of her worst fears come true.
- Melodrama
- Mighty Whitey: Andrea feels this is why Charlotte paid for her wedding.
- The Mistress: Andrea to William. The former thinks this trope would play into some Screw the Rules, I Have Connections! and would keep her from getting fired but it doesn't, as she's left alone and practically broke by the end of the movie.
- Money Slap: After social-climbing, career-driven Andrea is slapped in the face by her hard-working Henpecked Husband Chris for admitting to a long-standing affair she's had with her arrogant and narcissistic boss William, she tosses some of the money from her purse into his face and orders him to leave their home.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Charlotte is this to Jillian, who from what we see, is nothing but nice to her, even in the face of the rude behavior she always endures from her.
- Odd Couple: Charlotte and Alice.
- Odd Friendship: For the most part, as the Charlotte is more adventurous, taking part in things the latter objects to (i.e drinking, dancing in clubs, and going to strip club) and Alice preferring to live rather simply.
- Open Secret: Everyone knows about Andrea and William, except Andrea's husband.
- Pet the Dog: Even with Charlotte openly despising her daughter-in-law Jillian, when the latter comes to her heartbroken over William's affair, she informs her that since he married her without a prenuptial agreement, she could take him to the cleaners if she chooses to divorce him and gives her a yellow rose from her garden. She is immediately paid back by Jillian who informs her about the meeting her husband is planning on having that day to vote her out of the company, a meeting that she had no idea was going to take place.
- Rags to Riches: Chris, Ben, Pam and Nick. Also Andrea and Alice before the story began, though Angela loses it and Alice is keeping her wealth hidden.
- Rich Bitch: Andrea, in spades, which is odd as she hasn't started off wealthy.
- Riches to Rags: Andrea, when William is fired and the affair is ended.
- Nick before the beginning of the story. As we find out later, he used to work for William as a stockbroker before the latter fired him for some reason.
- Sleeping Their Way to the Top: Andrea. It comes back to bite her later on.
- Southern Belle: Charlotte is a more modern and older example.
- Shout-Out: To Driving Miss Daisy. When Charlotte gets a new car, Alice asks where Morgan Freeman is.
- Secretly Wealthy: Alice, when it's revealed that she has shares in Charlotte's company.
- Stealth Pun: The title is a play on the old saying, "The family that prays together stays together."
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Charlotte. We see her as an efficient businesswoman and a force to be reckoned with, while being very condescending to her daughter-in-law. However, she is also a very good and honest friend to Alice, and the two of them share equal standing in their friendship. Charlotte confides in Alice that she has Alzheimer's and begs her not to let her son put her in a home, and she later gives her daughter-in-law valuable advice on what to do when she finds out about William's affair with Andrea.
- Too Dumb to Live: Andrea's husband Chris would not believe Andrea was cheating on him until she literally said it to his face, despite the fact that everyone and their mom knew she and William were an item and there were signs everywhere.
- Chris trying to borrow money and creating a competing business involving William is so stupid that even his best friend calls him out on it. And he was also right, because William fires them both after using it as justification for conflict of interest. He makes matters worse by accidentally finding Andrea's hidden money, withdrawing it, and spending it to get the business off the ground. Andrea may be awful, but doing that without her consent was an unfair, idiotic move.
- Took a Level in Badass: William's wife, Jillian, once she finds out about the affair. She shows up and tells Andrea to stay the hell away from her family.
- Uptown Guy: William is the heir to a vast fortune and his wife Jillian comes from a trailer park. Downplayed, though, as he's remorselessly cheating on her.
- Villainous Breakdown: William suffers a minor one towards the end when he gets his just desserts. Andrea has one as well when she tries to get William to take care of her after they're both fired and the affair has been revealed. He coldly leaves her standing in the parking lot and tells her he's not leaving his wife for her, and she end up living her worst fear of living in poverty and relying on handouts for survival.
- Wham Line: "Huh. That's the same room his father used to have affairs in."
- "My son...is a Cartwright."
- Who's Your Daddy?: Andrea's son. According to Andrea, he's William's son, however, at the end, Chris is shown paying child support to and visiting him, making his paternity unclear.
- Would Hit a Girl: A rare justified version with Chris.
- Your Days Are Numbered: As you might expect with the diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's, Charlotte doesn't have much long for this world, however, she goes out on her terms.
