The Single Moms Club

"You don't have to be good at starting over. You just have to be good at letting go."

Five very different women are called to meet with the principal at their children's expensive private school.  Their children were involved in questionable behavior: the boys were tagging the walls with graffiti and the girls were smoking.  The mothers, all single mothers, are forced to work together to plan a school event.

• May Miller (Long) is struggling to raise her son, Rick (Massai Dorsey), as her ex continually disappoints.  She is also trying to get a book published.
• Jan Malkovitch (McLendon-Covey) is a talented publisher, trying to have it all.  She is trying to make partner at her firm, while figuring out how to raise her daughter Kate (Cassie Brennan).
• Hillary Massey (Smart) is in the midst of a messy divorce.  After letting her help go, she is trying to learn how to parent her 3 children, especially her oldest Jennifer (Katherine Shepler).
• Esperanza Luego (Henao) is trying to gain independence from her ex-husband (Eddie Cibrian), who continually undermines her decisions with their daughter Veronica (Vanessa Velasco), while hiding her boyfriend, Manny (Levy).
• Lytia Wright (Brown) is struggling to raise her younger 3 children and help them avoid the fate of their father and older brothers: jail, while she works as a waitress.

Can the women set aside their differences and support each other.

I discovered this film online and was interested by the premise.  This is the third Tyler Perry movie I have seen, and I liked this one the most.  However, the film still has issues.  It has a solid, intriguing premise, and a talented cast... but it never reaches it's full potential.  Nia Long is wonderful and elevates the material.  Her real son, portrays her son in the film.  Cocoa Brown and Wendi McLendon-Covey are hilarious.  There are too many characters and the plot tries too hard to force all of the characters into relationships.  The only one that really works is between Zulay Henao and William Levy.

Entertaining, but could be better.

The Single Moms Club (2014) 111 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual material and thematic elements
Director: Tyler Perry
Starring: Nia Long as May Miller
Wendi McLendon-Covey as Jan Malkovitch
Amy Smart as Hillary Massey
Zulay Henao as Esperanza Luego
Cocoa Brown as Lytia Wright
Ryan Eggold as Peter
Tyler Perry as TK
William Levy as Manny
Terry Crews as Branson