The Movie
Told mostly in flashbacks, Woman Thou Art Loosed is the story of Michelle Jordan (Kimberly Elise, Beloved), a girl whose life has been far from easy. At the start of the film, she's seen angrily firing a pistol during one of Bishop T.D. Jakes' services, so you know something is wrong with her. How deep her problems are, is what will be revealed over the next 90 minutes, as her life is rewound and explained.

Jakes, an ultra-popular evangelist, wrote the book the film is based on, and appears as himself in transitional scenes, preaching his gospel to the movie's characters. Their reactions to his sermon serve as motivation as the film moves towards its climax, but whether they are realistic is another issue altogether. If anything, they just seem designed to make Jakes into a super-preacher, capable of solving all problems through God.

Interestingly, the story doesn't take the easy way out, allowing characters to make the right choices in all cases. In fact, the main characters in this film are extremely flawed, in one case, making decisions that destroy the lives of others. But in the end, the film chooses not to judge. Whether that's the wisest or most appropriate decision is highly questionable. There's plenty of unfortunate stereotypes enforced because of these decisions, a fact that has to be held against a film trying to do good.

Unlike many other predominantly Christian films, the look and style of Woman is no different than your usual studio film, with stylish camera work and editing. The acting doesn't stand out as a problem, thanks to some decent acting on the part of the two female leads, though the writing, especially the dialogue, is stiff and awkward for most of the film.

The DVD
Woman was released on one two-sided DVD, with an anamorphic, widescreen transfer on one side, and a full-screen transfer on the other. The disc comes packed in a standard keepcase. The static menus on each side match the respective film's aspect ratio, and have options to play the movie, select scenes, change languages and view trailers. The film's soundtrack is in English 5.1, with subtitles available in English and Spanish, while the scene selections have still previews and titles.

The Quality
The video for Woman could have been more consistent, but for the most part, it's good, but not great. There's a softness to the image that seems to go in and out, as though there's a problem with the focus. Color is good and blacks are solid, and there's no evidence of any trouble with dirt or damage. In certain scenes the grain is more obvious than others, but it's not overwhelmingly distracting.

The audio comes off much better than the video. Presented in 5.1 Surround, it's actually a pretty decent mix for a film that wouldn't seem to lend itself to active surrounds. There is very good atmospheric ambient sound and active background music that works to create an extremely deep sound field.

The Extras
Three trailers are included in the "Fox Flix" section for Chisholm 72 - Unbought & Unbossed, The Hunting of the President and The Passion of the Christ. Chisholm is in anamorphic widescreen, but for some reason the other two are in letterboxed widescreen. That's all you get.

The Bottom Line
I wouldn't feel right trashing the material in this film, since it seems like Jakes is only trying to spread the word about what child abuse can lead to and the power of faith. But, having said that, the characters are mostly one-dimensional, the story is overly simplistic and it seems like the film might actually be saying that child-rape could be forgiven.

This is the kind of film that might appeal to fans of the "Mommy May I Sleep With Danger" genre, but with much higher production values. The target audience, fundamentalists and revivalists, might have a problem with the R-rated aspects of the film, but they'll enjoy seeing Jakes' work on film. The DVD presentation isn't much to brag about, though the audio and video quality is very good. If you're part of the PAX crowd or enjoy Jakes' BET show, give it a rent.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.