Entertainment

Woman Thou Art Loosed

‘Woman Thou Art Loosed’’ is a contrived and preachy melodrama produced by big-time televangelist T.D. Jakes. It concerns a well-off black couple — professor David Ames (Blair Underwood) and his real-estate-agent wife, Kari (Sharon Leal) — whose comfortable life in New Orleans is torn asunder when their 6-year-old daughter is kidnapped.

Cops first believe the girl is the victim of a serial killer, but the dynamics of their investigation change when they discover that Kari is an ex-con who was raped by her father and has a long rap sheet for crimes that include prostitution.

Also important to the story are Beth (Nicole Beharie), a sexy graduate student who helps David with academic and personal needs; FBI agent Wil Bennett (Nicoye Banks), who in one of the movie’s hard-to-take coincidences went to high school with Kari and is coincidentally assigned to the kidnapping investigation; and Pam Grier as a New Orleans cop who administers “justice” without regard to matters like due process.

As directed in TV-movie style by Neema Barnette, “Woman Thou Art Loosed” features some good acting, but most of it doesn’t ring true. (How, for instance, can David and Kari afford to live in a mansion in a gated community?) And the underlying message about God’s forgiveness of sinners grows tiresome. When I want to commune with my Maker, I go to church.