The Preacher's Wife - Reception

Reception

The movie gained mixed to positive reviews. Stephen Holden, writing for the New York Times, called the film "sweetly uplifting" and "a shrewdly conceived update", and had high praise for actress Jenifer Lewis and the funny scene where the children in the Christmas pageant cannot recall their lines. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times also found the film "warm, sentimental, amusing yet serious" and an "inspired reworking" of the 1947 original. He singled out Penny Marshall's directing for being "consistently wise and judicious", and praised Jenifer Lewis and Loretta Devine. Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, but was a bit equivocal in his review, concluding: "The Preacher's Wife is a sweet and good-hearted comedy about the holiday season. ... This movie could have done more, but what it does, it makes you feel good about."

Duane Byrge, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, also felt the film uneven. Although he found it heart-warming, he noted that it had a "patchy narrative" and felt the film made Washington and Houston such great characters that it was hard to see why the Biggs' marriage should survive. Too often, he concluded, the plot seemed nothing more than a means of stringing together terrific musical performances by Houston and the Georgia Mass Choir. Byrge found Penny Marshall's directing slow at time, but felt that casting director Paula Herold had done wonders. He singled out Courtney Vance as an appealing if downbeat husband, Jenifer Lewis as the "sassy" mother-in-law, and Loretta Devine as Bigg's defensive, aggressive secretary who thinks Dudley is there to replace her. Marshall, Byrge said, was more effective directing these lively characters (and actors) than the film's stars.

In contrast, Caren Weiner Campbell, writing for Entertainment Weekly, found Denzel Washington to be lackluster (although the gospel singing scenes were quite good). Her strongest criticism was directed at the screenplay. She felt the script had too many subplots, the narrative by the character of Jeremiah "sappy", and lacking in the "fun miracles" of the original. She also criticized Marshall's directing for being slow and tedious. Unlike other reviewers, Jackie Potts in The Miami Herald felt the characters were dated and not updated. She found Courtney Vance's acting humorless, and was highly critical of Whitney Houston's acting. " sleepwalks through scenes as the dignified mother, doing little more than tucking in her 6-year-old son (Justin Pierre Edmund). It's not a showy role, but Houston plays it as if the frost outdoors has settled on her shoulders." While she had high praise for Denzel Washington (he "plays Dudley with a 100-watt smile and a childlike sense of wonder"), she had little for Penny Marshall's directing. It was, she concluded, slow and the overall tone of the film "strangely solemn"—with only minor relief given by Jenifer Lewis' biting, scathingly funny turn as a tart-tongued mother.