Eileen is upset that her daughter Lacey, who has moved to a small town in Alabama to teach at an elementary school, is not coming home for Christmas. Meanwhile, exposition is thrown at us in messy splotches. Madea is fired, and she storms out of the store huffing and puffing. Things do not go well, when Madea straight-talks a poor plump woman who wants to buy some lingerie and also takes personal phone calls while standing at her station. First, there's the opening scene with Madea dressed up in a Santa suit, being roped into working at an upscale department store by her niece Eileen ( Anna Maria Horsford), who appears to be a straight-up sociopath. The story told here is both simple and mind-bendingly complex. So it's a mixed and annoying bag, and 'A Madea Christmas' is no different. It's heavy with unvarnished propaganda, and trucks in broad stereotypes and manipulative pulling of the heart strings. But the surrounding schtick of the movies? There we run into problems. I happen to find the schtick rather funny, especially when her eyes go dead and flat at the same time that she laughingly bull dozes her way into the heart of a situation. Malaprop of Perry's alternate universe, spouting homespun grammatically incorrect wisdom, and if you can't stand being in her presence then the Madea movies will be a nightmare. Madea is a road-of-least-resistance truth-talking loud-mouthed granny enveloped in gigantic muumuus and surrounded by dimwit members of her own family who either cower in fear of her, or underestimate her ability to cut through their malarkey. It features the adventures and mishaps of one 'Aunt Madea', played by Perry himself in drag. Tyler Perry's 'Madea' franchise, based on his popular one-man shows, is an unstoppable juggernaut with a built-in audience.

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