The Right Temptation
Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is a successful advertising executive from New York with a bad habit of lying. His best friend and secretary Rosa Lopez (Lourdes Benedicto) does a good job at keeping his credit problems under control but his lies get him in trouble with his paranoid boss (Dakin Matthews) and he loses his job. After being tracked down by a private investigator, he finds out that his beloved Aunt Sally (Ann Nesby) has died.
A day later he travels back to his hometown in Monte Carlo, Georgia and has some heartbreaking memories of his late mother (Faith Evans) and townsfolk of his hometown. When he arrives he finds a new friendship in Lucious (Mike Epps), the town's happy-go-lucky cab driver. Lucious thinks he's a pimp and even proclaims himself a "Booty expert" and "Bootyologist". As the two men drive to Darrin's room and board, they hear the eccentric town radio host (Steve Harvey), who welcomes Darrin back to Monte Carlo over the air. They drive pass Lilly (Beyoncé Knowles), a gorgeous woman who all of the men in town like. Lucious explains to Darrin that she is one of the most beautiful women in town with the best booty (in his own words). It is later revealed that Lilly was a childhood crush of Darrin, who would always con him out of his candy every Sunday (which was seen in the opening scene of the movie). He would try to bribe her with the candy by asking her to be his girlfriend and she always said "No" but still took his candy. The main reason why she rejected him all the time was because she wanted to marry singer Michael Jackson when she grew up. After Sally's funeral he encounters Paulina (Latanya Richardson), the town hypocritical bully who immediately shows that she does not like Lilly nor Darrin. Earlier in the film, Paulina had confronted Darrin's mother about her singing secular music and forced her into quitting the choir and leaving town.
The good-hearted reverend (Wendell Pierce) who is also Paulina's brother, informs Darrin that Sally's final wish is that he must lead the Beulah Baptist Church choir to victory at a gospel competition called "Gospel Explosion" and win the prize money of $10,000. If he succeeds, he will receive Sally's entire investment in Georgia Telecom - worth $150,000. Darrin takes on the job by lying saying that he is a music producer in order to take the money and pay off his credit trouble. He quickly learns that the town is full of colorful characters but short on talented singers. Darrin goes by Lilly's house and there he meets her kind grandfather (James E. Gaines). The grandfather feels that it is time that Lilly moves on with her life and find a good man. After a stressful effort, he later manages to persuade Lilly to join his choir despite Paulina's opposition. Some of the people he later recruited are Alma (Angie Stone), the clerk at the local dry cleaners who likes the Reverend, Bessie (Melba Moore) a member of the church who's afraid of Paulina, Scooter (Mickey Jones), a silly drunk who plays the organ, three barbers (The O'Jays), a young rapper (Zane Copeland Jr.) (and his white girlfriend), and he even gets Lucious to join. But the only reason why he was able to recruit all of these people was because he lied to them saying he'd split the prize money with them 50/50, starting with Lucious. He has no intentions of paying any of them. As time progresses he learns that Lilly has a son named Dean (Darrell Vanterpool) that she had out of wedlock and that's why most of the religious people in town despise her so much. The choir becomes a big success and more people join the choir and the church. With Lucious and the reverend's help some of the choir members that they find include prison convicts who they found while performing at the local prison when the strict warden (Faizon Love) needed someone to fill in for the day's entertainment.
Later on, Darrin finally becomes romantically involved with Lilly and they then begin to realize that they love each other. The week before the competition arrives, and while they are looking for Sally's box of letters in her house before everything gets packed away, Lilly and Darrin share their first kiss. They pause for a moment and continue kissing but they stop when Lilly gets scared of a mean looking picture of Aunt Sally. Lilly decides to call it a night and Darrin walks her home where she kisses him again before going inside. That same night, Paulina discovers Darrin's secret. She purposely reveals it the following afternoon at the church's barbecue, but she does it with a polite demeanor. She reveals how has been lying about what his job really is, how he got fired and has been in debt. A worried Lucious asks about his half of the prize money. All the other people he promised begin to question him also. Lilly is furious with him and her son, Dean asks him if he is leaving or not. Darrin looks over at Lilly for approval but she lies to him saying that she doesn't care about him or what he does because she was only using him just like he was using her. He asks her if she really meant that but she only responds by giving him an evil stare. He calls Rosa immediately and tells her he'll be back tomorrow. He and Lilly break up and when he returns to New York, he gets his job back and a promotion. He also moves into a luxurious condo. He comes to realize that none of those things mean anything without Lilly in his life as he continues to have flashbacks of her. During a meeting, he has flashbacks of the town and realizes he misses them so he quits his job and returns to Monte Carlo in order to lead them in the competition and fix his relationship with Lilly.
When he returns on the day of the competition he sees that Paulina has taken over his choir and kicked Lilly and the Reverend out. However, the Reverend was removed when he got into an argument with Paulina. Lucious had quit because he didn't want to continue without Darrin being involved. The Reverend informs him that Lilly has been missing ever since he left.
After a long search, he finds Lilly hiding out at Aunt Sally's old house. Depressed and angry, Lilly refuses to see or speak to Darrin. However, once Darrin apologizes about lying to her, she reveals she knew all along he wasn't a music producer because he knew nothing about music. She also tells him she got so mad at him and at herself because she thought he was different from other men she has dated. He assures her that when he got back to New York, he changed and he felt as though he no longer had to lie. Darrin admits that he doesn't mind if she hates him but he does asks her to help the choir but she can't do it because Paulina won't let her. Despite that, Darrin convinces her to come along by telling her "Without you that choir is a bunch of drunks, babies' daddies and convicts...Might as well be an NFL team". The couple reunites and they recruit Lucious and the Reverend to go down the competition and stop Paulina once and for all.
When they get there, Darrin and the Reverend manage to convince the choir members to vote out Paulina and Darrin takes control again. As Lilly approaches him as they prepare to go out and perform, he tells her that she inspired him to name the choir "The Fighting Temptations" (something she mentions earlier in the film). They go out and perform, The song is a huge hit, and they receive a standing ovation.
The show's hosts, Donnie McClurkin and Yolanda Adams announce the winners, "The Fighting Temptations" and they win the prize money.
Darrin makes his acceptance speech thanking the choir for all of their hard work. He ends his speech by asking Lilly to marry him, and she non-verbally accepts by giving him a hug.
Eighteen months later, Darrin and Lilly are married with their own child. The church is currently being expanded and repaired (thanks to Darrin and Lilly donating the prize money).
Darrin and Lilly have also become the official choir directors (Darrin directs, while Lilly sings lead just like before).
The film ends with the choir singing one last song, followed by a song by Lilly, Alma and Bessie.
Before the end credits begin, Lucious bothers Darrin and Lilly's infant son by playfully asking him "You know I'm your daddy, right?". Lilly's grandfather looks back at him with an evil stare and Lucious immediately backs away from the baby.
