DVD Movie Rating for: The Preacher's Wife

2 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: The Preacher's Wife

Good natured Reverend Henry Biggs (Courtney B. Vance) finds that his marriage to choir mistress Julia (Whitney Houston) is flagging, due to his constant absence caring for the deprived neighbourhood they live in. On top of all this, his church is coming under threat from property developer Joe Hamilton (Gregory Hines). In desperation, Rev. Biggs prays to God for help - and help arrives in the form of an angel named Dudley (Denzel Washington). However, Dudley's arrival seems to cause even more trouble...

DVD Production Details of: The Preacher's Wife

Starring: Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston

Director: Penny Marshall

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen

Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

DVD Release Date: August 13, 2002

DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: The Preacher's Wife

• Denzel Washington.... Dudley 'Dud'
• Whitney Houston .... Julia 'Jules' Biggs
• Courtney B. Vance .... Reverend Henry Biggs
• Gregory Hines .... Joe Hamilton
• Jenifer Lewis .... Margueritte Coleman
• Loretta Devine .... Beverly
• Justin Pierre Edmund .... Narrator/Jeremiah 'Jer' Biggs
• Lionel Richie .... Britsloe
• Paul Bates .... Saul Jeffreys
• Lex Monson .... Osbert
• Darvel Davis Jr. .... Hakim
• William James Stiggers Jr. .... Billy Eldridge
• Marcella Lowery .... Anna Eldridge
• Cissy Houston .... Mrs. Havergal
• Aaron A. McConnaughey .... Teen

Photo Gallery of the movie: The Preacher's Wife

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Preacher's Wife

Reviews of the movie: The Preacher's Wife

This tedious remake of the classic Christmas movie The Bishop's Wife falls on its face by significantly altering the careful design of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert E. Sherwood's story for the original film. In Sherwood's version, a rather wooden, inept bishop and his lonely wife unknowingly take into their lives a heaven-sent angel who aids the former and ends up falling in love with the latter. In this unnecessary update, an inner-city preacher (Courtney B. Vance) and his estranged spouse (Whitney Houston) are visited by a celestial goof (Denzel Washington), whose unsolicited offer of help is enough to galvanize Vance's character to fix his own problems. What that means is this: by the second act, there's no reason to have Washington's angel in the story. Even his infatuation with the missus isn't enough to warrant his hanging around this movie; the change is a colossal blunder by director Penny Marshall. Vance ends up stealing the film from Washington, but it's a Pyrrhic victory; for the most part this movie just seems like a series of random scenes between opportunities for Houston to belt out songs.

This movie is much better than the other romantic Denzel Washington movie which used to be "Mississippi Masala (1991)." Though, this movie was also released at the same time "Jerry Maguire (1996)" did. I like this one, too. I have never seen Washington play an angel before. But now I did, which surprised me. What I mean by "better" is that Washington and Houston are both on each other's side, so they make a great attraction. This movie somewhat reminded me of the time we were leaving to Florida from home when it was snowing here.