Movie Review: 'Black or White'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Here's a drama abour racial matters in which, just in case we'd forgotten, race matters.
Black or White is a charged melodrama the cornerstone of which is a custody dispute between a white grandfather and a black grandmother over their biracial granddaughter.
Eight-year-old Eloise (Jillian Estell) is the child being fought over by a West Los Angeles attorney named Elliott, her paternal grandfather (played by Kevin Costner), and Rowena, her paternal grandmother (played by Octavia Spencer), a successful realtor who lives with and supports a large extended family in Compton, in southern Los Angeles, while running several businesses.
Drinking heavily since the recent death of his wife (Jennifer Ehle) in a car crash, grieving widower Elliott has become the sole guardian of Eloise, the preteen whose mother –- Elliott's daughter -– died during childbirth. He has cared for her ever since their mutual loved one died, but there's not much of a traditional family unit left.
So he hires an African-American tutor (Mpho Koaho) to help Eloise with her studies.
As for Rowena, she has requested joint custody, which Elliott balks at.
So Rowena takes him to court, where her drug-addicted son, Reggie (Andre Holland) –- Eloise's biological father –- won't do her case much good.
And Elliott, who blames Reggie for his daughter's death, will not hesitate to articulate Reggie's failings.
But Rowena's lawyer brother, played by Anthony Mackie, aims to play the race card in court, as a way of gaining Rowena full custody, by revealing Elliot to be a closeted racist.
Writer-director Mike Binder (Indian Summer, The Upside of Anger, Man About Town, Reign Over Me) lays out the terms in a screenplay about race that's neither forthright nor furtive.
But it takes on the race issue somewhat warily, using accessible comedy to keep things from ever getting too tense or hard-edged.
Consequently, the film is pleasant to swim through, but it stays in the shallow end of the pool, choosing to tiptoe past but not exactly explore the touchy issues of race and class that have surfaced off-screen so often of late.
Costner and Spencer are sturdily convincing in their roles as well-meaning but imperfect guardians, each with the child's best interest at heart but each with a blind spot or two.
So we'll take custody of 2½ stars out of 4. Where race is concerned, the engaging and affecting Black or White is about shades of grey.