There’s a good movie somewhere within Black or White. Unfortunately, we don’t get that movie during its two-hour run time.
Director Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger, Reign Over Me) seemingly has some important things to say about race and we currently get along in modern culture, but can’t really focus those thoughts into a story. As a result, Black or White kind of feels like a bunch of different scenes strung together, rather than a story that actually progresses.
Presumably, the movie is about a grandfather, Elliott (Kevin Costner), forced to take care of his mixed-race granddaughter, Eloise, after the death of his wife. The girl’s mother died in childbirth and the father, Reggie (Andre Holland), only came into the picture when he needed money.
Elliott’s wife dying essentially makes him a single parent, which compels the other grandmother, Rowena (Octavia Spencer), to actively seek full custody of Eloise with the help of her brother, a prominent attorney (Anthony Mackie). Whether because of ego or inherent racism, Elliott balks and the story builds toward an inevitable court battle for the child.
But why Elliott wants to fight Rowena for custody of their granddaughter is the question Black or White never really answers or even explores satisfactorily. Does he simply not want to admit he can’t take care of a child? (Is he blinded by his drinking problem?) Does he have an issue with Eloise living in South Central Los Angeles with Rowena’s large family? Or does he simply hold a significant grudge against Reggie, who apparently stole his daughter away and left a huge mess to clean up?
The answer Binder chooses ultimately feels like a cop-out, one of many reasons this movie feels like such a big miss. Elliott is frequently accused by Rowena of not wanting to address the obvious issue. “Why do you always have to go there?” he asks early in the film. “Why do you always have to pretend there’s no there to go to?” she counters.
Binder’s script doesn’t pretend there’s no there to go to (using the lawyers in the story to ask their clients if they really want to get ugly), but either seems afraid of truly going there or thinks he can get away with not fully confronting the race issues that the movie presumably wants to tackle. Worst of all, he substitutes contrived drama to create a climax for the story and supposedly give one character a chance for redemption.
That’s where Black or White truly lost me. This isn’t a great movie or even very good. I might not go so far as to call it offensive, as other critics have, but I certainly understand the use of that adjective. But I was willing to go along with it, because I liked the actors and was curious to see where the story would go. However, the big dramatic climax almost entirely ruins the movie. As it was happening, I even whispered “Don’t do this,” because it all felt so ridiculous. And if Binder didn’t trust his story enough to let it play out without injecting fake thrills, how can the audience be expected to do so?
I can excuse a lot with a great cast, and Black or White has an impressive one. Costner and Spencer are always compelling, and I’m a big fan of Mackie (going back to We Are Marshall) and Holland. But none of the actors rise above the material to do anything notable or memorable. That’s not their fault, of course. Actors can only do so much with what they’re given. And they don’t have a lot to work with here, other than to embody several stereotypes.
As I was watching the movie, I considered that the stereotypes were intentional from Binder. Maybe he was trying to confront them head-on in his story. But that was probably giving him too much credit. None of these characters really transcend the box they’re put into. For me, this was especially irritating with Holland, who may have been my favorite actor on TV last year for his performance as Dr. Algernon Edwards on Cinemax’s The Knick.
On that show, Holland plays a multi-faceted character, one fighting the social and institutional racism (among whites and blacks) of 1900 as he tries to fulfill his skills as a brilliant surgeon. While trying to show he deserves to practice medicine at a top New York hospital, the anger of his frequent obstacles bubbles up and he picks fights with people at bars. To go from that to playing a crack addict and deadbeat father who doesn’t care about his daughter so much as want a big check seems like a serious waste of Holland’s talent.
I suppose I could say that about the entire movie and its cast. This seems like a waste of their talents, and the movie benefits from its actors’ presence far more than those actors benefit from being a part of it. I have no idea if everyone involved thought they were signing up for a film that aspired to be more important, that had something significant to say and could help drive cultural discussion.
Costner seems to think so, based on interviews I’ve seen him do with Tavis Smiley and CBS This Morning. Maybe he truly believes that, or perhaps he’s just being a good promoter. But deep down, I can’t help but feel that he and the rest of the cast involved has to be disappointed with the final result.
