Watch out for the mother-in-law in Not Easily Broken

Uplifting is the word for this black American drama which follows the wedding of Dave (Morris Chesnut), an LA building contractor, and Clarice (Taraji P Henson), an ambitious estate agent, who survive a bullying mother-in-law (Jenifer Lewis), a car crash and various other disappointments on the way to marital bliss.

Taken by Bill Duke from a book by Bishop TD Jakes, an evangelical pastor whose previous work includes such titles as God’s Leading Lady, the film doesn’t stray far from cliché but transcends it when its lively actors take hold.

Naturally a saintly pastor helps them see straight, but by that time you might be wondering what a director like Spike Lee would have made of the story.