But then the men start showing up, one by one, in a muddled parade. First there is T.K. (Tyler Perry), who meets-cute with May in a parking lot, then shows up at her house with the purse she left behind. He tells her he looked through her purse and found her book manuscript in there and read it and thought it was really good, and can he take her out to dinner? Because this is La-La Land and not reality, May does not seem alarmed or freaked out by his behavior.
Hillary, meanwhile, awkwardly lusts over her handyman neighbor (Ryan Eggold), but is too shy to make a move. Esperanza is in love with a bartender named Manny (William Levy) but is terrified that her ex-husband will find out. Jan has been celibate for 10 years, but May introduces her to one of her co-workers and Voila, Jan is back on the road to love. Meanwhile, Lytia is being courted (against her will, really) by a swaggering personal trainer named Branson who keeps showing up at her place of work and won't take No for an answer.
The romances are handled slapdash. When T.K. and May first kiss it is so awkward it looks like a mistake. With the exception of Esperanza and Manny, nobody has any real chemistry and the "finding love" storylines just do not mesh with the overall message of the film. The script feels lazy in that way.
But sometimes (rarely but sometimes), there's a moment, a mood, that is touching, poignant, even powerful. The best scene in the film involves May and her son Rick. Rick's dad (never seen in the film) had promised his son he'd pick him up from school, and Dad is once again a no-show. Instead of having a heart-to-heart with her son, she lets him be and waits nearby in the car as her son, small and defeated, sits on the school steps. Jan, on her way to pick up her own daughter, asks May what's going on, and May, staring over at Rick, keeping her distance, says, "I try to see which way Rick’s going to fall, and I try to catch him." Nia Long is a beautiful actress, with a fresh and natural presence. She is emotionally accessible and funny. Neither the bossy machinations of the script nor its requirement that she pair up with T.K. at the end can dim her light.
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