The Good

Morris Chestnut is a one fine actor.

The Bad

Of all the discs in the world why is this one BD Live Enabled?Dave (Morris Chestnut) and Clarice (Taraji P. Henson) star in this tale of a marriage that is tested by time and circumstance. When we open this movie it seems that our characters are at a crossroads. Then Clarice gets hurt in a car accident and suddenly it seems like every problem they have gets magnified. They are tested by other people outside the relationship, money woes, and just about everything else that seems to have always concerned married folks . Yet, these two people did make a vow when they got married and this film does its best to ultimately explore the meaning of that.

Features

Making Not Easily Broken

I think this featurette is in Standard Definition. It doesn't look that amazing and it doesn't tell us anything that special about the film, but I would think that fans of these actors would be quite happy to own this. The cast and crew talk about making this film, what they were going for with the characters and themes, and they discuss working from the novel (on which this movie is based) by T.D. Jakes.

Deleted Scenes

These appear to be in High Definition. I say that because they look as good as the film itself. They have the same levity as the images in the movie proper, yet I never got the feeling that the Blu-ray format was overly making this movie some amazing experience. While I don't know how much these scenes open or don't open up this release, I do know that people who enjoyed this film should watch these.

Video

1080p High Definition / 1.85:1. This movie looked solid on Blu-ray disc. Director Bill Duke doesn't appear to be going out of his way to expand the form of movies with his direction. Rather, he seems to be trying to be faithful the script and the source material. While this doesn't really make for the most richest of experiences, the images presented are solid even if they don't always look that amazing. Simply put, Not Easily Broken much a cinematic achievement as an emotional one.

Audio

English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 - Subtitled in English and French. The audio on this movie isn't done in such a way to maximize one's home theater set-ups. It seems that the sound mainly follows what is happening on screen. This isn't really surprising as one can't expect that they would blow things out for a movie like this (it isn't like Ridley Scott is behind the camera, right?), but it makes me wonder why this movie is on Blu-ray at all. Doesn't it seem like this film would be better suited simply being in Standard Definition? Just a thought...

Package

Morris Chestnut and Taraji P. Henson are presented on this front cover with a quote from Tyler Perry. The back cover gives us 4 images from this film, critics quotes (one from Dr. Phil), a description of this movie, a Technical Specs list, a Special Features listing and a cast list.

Final Word

All in all I liked Not Easily Broken even if it is a movie that I have seen many times before. Lets be honest, there are only so many stories but it's how they are told that makes all the difference in regards to how interesting they can be. Not Easily Broken doesn't try to do anything that different with its look and tone, but I don't know that we can really fault the movie for that. It isn't like it's trying to break new ground, so much as it seems to be trying to have an active discussion about marriage and relationships.

I think it's very easy to be cynical today. The older I get it seems like life just gets tougher. The more I know the more I realize I don't know. What does all this mean? Is it all just biology or do relationships rise above that? I can't really say but what I do know is that Not Easily broken isn't afraid to try and examine these issues.