''Not Easily Broken'' is a 2009 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

Bill Duke William Henry Duke Jr. (born February 26, 1943) is an American actor, director, and producer. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke works primarily in the action and crime drama genres often as a character related to law enforcement. As a ...

. The film is written by Brian Bird based on

T. D. Jakes Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr. (born June 9, 1957) is an American non-denominational Christian evangelical pastor and motivational speaker. He was the senior pastor of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch in Dallas, Texas, fro ...

' 2006 novel of the same name. It stars Taraji P. Henson and Morris Chestnut.

Plot

Dave and Clarice Johnson have reached a breaking point in their marriage. When Clarice is injured in a car crash, her mother Mary intervenes. The obvious truth that more than just her injuries need immediate attention is exposed. Clarice begins to be treated by Julie, a physical therapist. Dave develops a friendship with Julie and her young son Bryson. The acceptance and comfort Dave finds in the two stirs his longing for a family and a passionate partner. When Bryson unexpectedly dies in a swimming accident, Dave and Julie's relationship grows closer as Clarice pulls farther away. Dave and Clarice must confront whether their marriage vows are or are not easily broken. Dave later visits Julie after she calls him, and he comforts her in her grief. They begin to kiss, but Dave realizes it is Clarice he truly wants. The couple reunites once Clarice expresses to him the reasons for her mother having such a big input in their marriage. They reunite and Dave finds out that Clarice is pregnant.

Cast

Morris Chestnut Morris Lamont Chestnut (born January 1, 1969) is an American actor. He first came to prominence for his role as Ricky in the 1991 film ''Boyz n the Hood''. He has appeared in feature films such as ''G.I. Jane'', ''The Brothers (2001 film), The B ...

as Dave Johnson *

Taraji P. Henson Taraji Penda Henson ( ; born September 11, 1970) is an American actress. Her accolades include a Golden Globe Award, alongside nominations for an Academy Award, six Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. In 2016 and 2024, ''Time'' named Henson one of ...

as Clarice Clark-Johnson *

Maeve Quinlan Maeve Quinlan (born November 16, 1964) is an Irish-American actress. She is best known for starring as Megan Conley for 11 years in ''The Bold and the Beautiful'', as Paula Carin '' South of Nowhere'', and Constance Tate-Duncan in the rebooted ...

as Julie Sawyer *

Kevin Hart Kevin Darnell Hart (born July 6, 1979) is an American comedian and actor. The accolades he has received include the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and nominations for two Grammy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. After winning se ...

as Tree *

Wood Harris Sherwin David "Wood" Harris (born October 17, 1969) is an American actor. He first garnered attention for his role as Motaw in the Jeff Pollack film '' Above the Rim'' (1994), prior to portraying high school football player Julius Campbell in t ...

as Darnell Gooden *

Eddie Cibrian Edward Carl Cibrian ( ; born June 16, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Cole Deschanel on the television series ''Sunset Beach (TV series), Sunset Beach'' and List of Third Watch characters#James 'Jimmy' Doherty, Jimmy ...

as Brock Houseman *

Jenifer Lewis Jenifer Jeanette Lewis (born January 25, 1957) is an American actress. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals and worked as a back-up singer for Bette Midler before appearing in films ''Beaches'' (1988) and '' Sister Act'' (1992). L ...

as Mary "Mama" Clark *

Niecy Nash Carol Denise Betts (previously Nash, née Ensley; born February 23, 1970) (), known professionally as Niecy Nash, is an American actress. Her career began in the late 1990s, with appearances in the films '' Boys on the Side'' (1995) and '' Cooki ...

as Michelle *Cannon Jay as Bryson Sawyer *

Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genre ...

as Bishop Wilkes * Henry Brown Jr. as Mr. Reid *

as Allen

Awards

At the

Black Reel Awards The Black Reel Awards, or BRAs, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African Americans in film (FAAAF) to recognize excellence of African Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the Af ...

was nominated for ''Best Director'', and Brian Bird was nominated for ''Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted''.

won ''Best Actress'' at the ''

BET Awards The BET Awards are an American award show that was established in 2001 by the BET, Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate Black person, Black entertainers and other minorities in music, film, sports and philanthropy. The awards, which ...

'' for her role in the film combined with two other performances in '' The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'', and ''

The Family That Preys ''The Family That Preys'' is a 2008 American comedy drama film written, co-produced and directed by Tyler Perry. The screenplay focuses on two families, one wealthy and the other working class, whose lives are intertwined in both love and business ...

''.

won the ''Grace Award for Movies'' at the 2010 ''Movieguide Awards''.

Reception

The film has received mainly mixed reviews from critics. ,

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports a 31% approval rating, based on 68 reviews with an average of 4.65/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Though well-intentioned, ''Not Easily Broken'' is bogged down by melodramatic plotting and stereotypical characters". Another review aggregator,

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, gave the film a 43/100 approval rating based on 18 reviews.

Box office performance

On its opening weekend, it opened #9 with $5,600,000 in 724 theaters with an $7,735 average. In total it made a domestic gross of $10,572,742.

References

External links

* *
Morris Chestnut: The ''Not Easily Broken'' interview with Kam Williams
{{Bill Duke 2009 romantic comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films Films based on American novels Films directed by Bill Duke TriStar Pictures films 2009 films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language romantic comedy-drama films