The inexplicable success of filmmaker, playwright and actor Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion) continues with Tyler's Perry's Daddy's Little Girls, a clumsy morality tale that is the cinematic equivalent of using a ball-peen hammer to crack open eggs.

Our hero is Monty James (Idris Elba), a hardworking car mechanic doing the best he can to raise his three young daughters (real-life sisters Sierra, Lauren and China McClain) with the help of his ex-wife's mother. But the cruel hand of fate comes when the old woman dies of lung cancer, paving the way for the girls' shrewish mother (Tasha Smith) and her dope-dealing boyfriend (Gary Sturgis) to demand custody of the children.

Why these two villains suddenly want to be parents is never really explained. Considering the way they are depicted, presumably they plan to tie the girls on the railroad tracks and demand rent money. Whatever the reason, mom and boyfriend put Monty on notice that they will stop at nothing. Their insidious plot gets a boost when one of the girls accidentally starts a fire in Monty's cramped apartment, spurring Georgia child welfare workers to grant temporary custody to the baddies.

Monty seeks the help of Julia Rossmore (Gabrielle Union), an attractive but haughty corporate lawyer for whom he has been doing some chauffeuring work. Naturally, the sophisticate and the guy from the hood don't get along at all; she's an Ivy League workaholic, while he doesn't know a salad fork from a hole in the ground. Still, there's nothing like a night of boozing to blur class distinctions, and eventually they fall in love.

But Daddy's Little Girls heaps on the melodrama in the way Golden Corral heaps on the fried okra. Julia's rich friends admonish her for slumming it with the blue-collar hunk. Meanwhile, the custody battle over Monty's children escalates into all types of implausibility. No plot device is too clichéd, no stab at humor too ham-fisted. An inspiring church sermon arrives just in time to prop up the beleaguered Monty. Julia endures a series of nightmare blind dates replete with mamma's boys, wannabe rappers and married philanderers.

Nevertheless, Daddy's Little Girls is over the top enough to be somewhat watchable. There is a real curiosity in seeing what mawkish thing happens next, and Elba and Union display an appealing chemistry that occasionally shines through. It's not enough to recommend the film, but it does help ease the "ugh" factor.

The anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 print is near pristine, as you would expect with a new release. The images are sharp and nicely detailed.

Viewers can choose from Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0. Both are clear, crisp mixes in which the dialogue is easily understood. That is ostensibly a good thing. A 2.0 Spanish track is another option. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish.

Tyler Perry's commentary is informative and enthusiastic, but his earnestness points to a real problem with Daddy's Little Girls. "There are so many messages in this movie," he says. Exactly. Interestingly, the filmmaker points out that the real-life minister in the church scene improvised his entire sermon.

Tyler's Team: The Cast & Crew (14:05) is a comprehensive featurette in which Perry, producer Reuben Cannon and cast members lavish praise on the film. The four-minute, 20-second Introducing ... the McClain Sisters spotlights the real-life sisters who play Daddy's little girls. I will give the movie this much: They're very cute.

The extended church scene, which clocks in at seven minutes and 50 seconds, demonstrates the wisdom of not using it in the picture's final version. The Atlanta Aquarium: Working Underwater (2:16) is a throwaway about shooting a scene at the world's second-largest aquarium. The DVD also includes sneak previews of other films.

Tyler Perry deserves props for crafting films aimed at churchgoing African-Americans, a segment of the audience too often ignored by mainstream Hollywood. But good intentions alone don't make for a worthwhile story. In fact, sanctimony can be awfully unflattering when it's the only thing you see.