BLACK OR WHITE
Starring Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer
Directed by Mike Binder
“You’re a goddamn stereotype! You’re a walking cliché!”
Remarkably, there’s only one character in Mike Binder’s well-intentioned, dreadfully executed melodrama who’s called out on this. Especially given that the only member of the ensemble who needn’t worry about facing such charges is the teenaged genocide survivor who toils as a math tutor, moonlights as a chauffeur, totes around an archive of academic papers he’s penned on countless subjects and learns a new language whenever he’s bored. Of course, he comes across as just a little contrived. So too does Binder’s film, which takes the contentious, complex issues surrounding race relations and reduces them to pap.
We’re introduced to Elliot (Kevin Costner) minutes after the death of his wife. (It occurs off-screen, of course. This isn’t the sort of film that’s looking to upset anyone.) This tragedy leaves him as the sole guardian of his mixed-race granddaughter Eloise (Jillian Estell), whose saintly white mother died during childbirth and black father succumbed to crack addiction. Anesthetizing his heartbreak with alcohol, Elliot leaves himself vulnerable to a hostile custody takeover from Eloise’s paternal grandmother, Rowena (Octavia Spencer).
Given that Binder – who previously helmed the Adam Sandler 9/11 film, Reign Over Me – struggles to stage a standard conversation convincingly, it’s hardly surprising that his attempts at gripping courtroom drama should quickly devolve into ridiculous grandstanding and more signals coming in from the sidelines than your average NFL game.
Perhaps this all worked better on the page but it’s difficult to envision a script that wasn’t written in all caps, including the final instruction, “END CREDITS. (ACCOMPANIED BY SONG THAT REITERATES KEY MESSAGES IN CASE ANYONE MISSED THEM.)”
