. . . SINGLE MOMS CLUB's producer\writer\star\director Tyler Perry pays homage to another long-gone American vestige of yesteryear, The Middle Class. Though The Middle Class admittedly is a little more recent in our collective memory today than the Plantation Class was for GWTW's initial viewers in 1939, that does not mean that history will validate the rosy picture Perry paints here any more than GWTW is taken seriously today. The Motion Picture Academy effectively just canceled out GWTW's "Best Picture" Oscar by giving the same award to 12 YEARS A SLAVE, which sets out to prove that GWTW's "happy plantation days" are one big, fat lie. Mr. Perry bravely ignores this current rebuke of racial stereotyping, making the white prep school principal and white single mom "Hillary" total ninnies in the old "step-and-fetch-it" tradition of directors lampooning their differently-raced actors with the most demeaning caricatures possible. Showing white single-mom "Jan" totally tone deaf and rhythm-challenged is no different than Thomas Edison's company filming Blacks eating only watermelon and fried chicken in 1900. Kudos to the three white actresses taking on these sure-to-be-controversial parts, despite the risk of their being labeled as "race traitor Aunt Thomasinas" for the rest of their film careers. A 12 YEARS A SLAVE-style antidote already is available on-line to document the actual last gasp of the American Middle Class: it's titled REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.

Five single women are having trouble. Problems include needing to work too many hours, dealing with difficult ex's, depression, unwanted suitors, unrealized aspirations, and, of course, loving children who can act out. One day, all five are summoned to the principal's office at their well-reputed private school. Two of the kids have been caught painting graffiti and the others were smoking. Because of this, the principal informs them, this quintet of ladies will be planning the fund-raising school dance. Ouch. As some of the mothers don't really know one another, this seems challenging. But, lo and behold, once the gals start working together, they form a support group that works for each other's benefit, including taking turns babysitting so that everyone can have a "night out". Meanwhile, each woman connects with an interested male, surprisingly, and begins or extends a relationship. Then, a crisis occurs which may split the group apart. Will it be so? This lovely, funny, and sweet movie will please fans of romantic comedy and those who adore Mr. Perry, who is one of the cast members, too, as well as the writer and director. What a tour de force this man is! The rest of the cast, too numerous to mention by name, is very attractive and talented, making for a great view. Kudos to the child actors as well. The setting is also extremely fetching, as are the costumes and cinematography. Perhaps some mention should be made of a couple of minor problems. There are some sexual innuendos and one of the ladies tends to actually "beat up" on the man who has a crush on her. It's funny but annoying at the same time. Nevertheless, all of you potential fans, make plans to catch this one. It is a singularly welcome movie.

The five women who reside at the center of "Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club" are united by the fact that their misbehaving children have all been put on probation by the private school they attend. In response to this and other issues, the gals form their own support group to help them cope with the very real and very specific challenges they face trying to rear children on their own.

The women represent a neat (a little too neat, perhaps) cross section of modern America, culled from a variety of races and economic strata, differences that are ultimately obliterated by the common bond of single motherhood. The movie focuses on the compromises - financial, moral, personal and romantic - that these harried women have to make in order to get through life.

Though "The Single Moms Club" is slightly less cartoonish than many of Perry's previous films (no Madea in sight!) and it does offer some insights into the struggles facing such women, the movie, as a whole, lacks the verisimilitude needed to make the material convincing. For all the fine actresses that Perry has assembled for his cast (Nia Long, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Zulay Henao, Cocoa Brown and Amy Smart), the characters themselves lean too much towards the stereotypical and clichéd - the sassy, plus-sized black woman whose husband and two oldest boys are in the poky; the uptight, snooty rich white woman who's making her way up the corporate ladder and, thus, had her daughter through artificial insemination; the petite suburban blond with the hunky, albeit sensitive, next door neighbor, etc.

Perry himself appears, not in drag this time, portraying the romantic interest of one of the mothers. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine's" Terry Crews is also one of the men in the cast.

But it's the five actresses who rise, if only partially, above all the slickery and goo.