Major Spoilers "Black or White" is a drama co-produced and starring Kevin Costner, written and directed by Mike Binder.
The plot is, and "is not" about race. It's about the ties of family, forgiveness, and stepping up to responsibility-- but race also is in the midst of each of those issues, complicating each for the characters.
I don't know that anyone's social views will be all that changed by the events of the film. If anything, they might be affirmed.
Oscar winner Octavia Spencer does solid work with Rowena-- the paternal grandmother of the child at the center of the film-- who is more nuanced than the film's trailer might suggest. Nonetheless, the film gives her character plenty of the "tough & sassy eye-rolling mama" tropes to wade through.
Rowena's attorney brother Jeremiah (Anthony Mackie) is set up as a kind of Johnnie Cochran stand-in, with racial-bait ideology at the forefront of his mind.
The granddaughter Eloise is written as very precocious for her age; surprisingly, any "deeper insight" as to her feelings about her father suddenly coming back to her life are not revealed. I was halfway expecting a segment where she is allowed to speak in court but, it doesn't happen. Curiously, Rowena's gay daughter and family are introduced in a matter-of-fact way (perhaps an oblique commentary that Rowena is not homophobic), but the daughter's take on these issues aren't dealt with at all; she just kind of stays in the background. (I'd have to see the film again to even be sure which one was the daughter, and which was the partner. They're THAT much in the background.) Elliot can apparently go on as many benders as he wants, but the drinking is just seen as "a little problem", that Elliot is "addicted to anger" and not "full blown" alcoholism. It seems to sidestep taking the issue seriously.
Duvan, an African immigrant of nondescript nationality (except that his hometown was war-torn) serves as an "alternative black" in Elliot's life. He's given a kind of "model minority" backstory in his college-student status, prolific paper-writing and multiple-language fluency. He's quite visibly nervous in his first visit (albeit an impromptu one) with the Jeffers family. The family treats him with respect, though no one seems curious at all as to where he's originally from. In another kind of film, someone in Rowena's family might have made fun of his accent on his first visit. But the glaring uncuriosity concerning Duvan came across as a little disingenuous. Also, it seems like the filmmaker was veering toward a scene where Elliot comments in a moment of drunkenness to Duvan, "You're the type of black guy I wouldn't have minded my daughter dating". Perhaps fortunately, it doesn't happen.
We see nothing of Elliot's blood relatives or any in-laws via his wife's family. Seemingly nobody of note at the funeral/wake, just, nothing. Do any of them know or care about Elliot/Eloise? Maybe this would have complicated the balance of characters, but anyway..
The film resolves itself in a somewhat surprising way. The narrative is flawed, but well-meaning. It is tolerable for a second watching.
The plot is, and "is not" about race. It's about the ties of family, forgiveness, and stepping up to responsibility-- but race also is in the midst of each of those issues, complicating each for the characters.
I don't know that anyone's social views will be all that changed by the events of the film. If anything, they might be affirmed.
Oscar winner Octavia Spencer does solid work with Rowena-- the paternal grandmother of the child at the center of the film-- who is more nuanced than the film's trailer might suggest. Nonetheless, the film gives her character plenty of the "tough & sassy eye-rolling mama" tropes to wade through.
Rowena's attorney brother Jeremiah (Anthony Mackie) is set up as a kind of Johnnie Cochran stand-in, with racial-bait ideology at the forefront of his mind.
The granddaughter Eloise is written as very precocious for her age; surprisingly, any "deeper insight" as to her feelings about her father suddenly coming back to her life are not revealed. I was halfway expecting a segment where she is allowed to speak in court but, it doesn't happen. Curiously, Rowena's gay daughter and family are introduced in a matter-of-fact way (perhaps an oblique commentary that Rowena is not homophobic), but the daughter's take on these issues aren't dealt with at all; she just kind of stays in the background. (I'd have to see the film again to even be sure which one was the daughter, and which was the partner. They're THAT much in the background.) Elliot can apparently go on as many benders as he wants, but the drinking is just seen as "a little problem", that Elliot is "addicted to anger" and not "full blown" alcoholism. It seems to sidestep taking the issue seriously.
Duvan, an African immigrant of nondescript nationality (except that his hometown was war-torn) serves as an "alternative black" in Elliot's life. He's given a kind of "model minority" backstory in his college-student status, prolific paper-writing and multiple-language fluency. He's quite visibly nervous in his first visit (albeit an impromptu one) with the Jeffers family. The family treats him with respect, though no one seems curious at all as to where he's originally from. In another kind of film, someone in Rowena's family might have made fun of his accent on his first visit. But the glaring uncuriosity concerning Duvan came across as a little disingenuous. Also, it seems like the filmmaker was veering toward a scene where Elliot comments in a moment of drunkenness to Duvan, "You're the type of black guy I wouldn't have minded my daughter dating". Perhaps fortunately, it doesn't happen.
We see nothing of Elliot's blood relatives or any in-laws via his wife's family. Seemingly nobody of note at the funeral/wake, just, nothing. Do any of them know or care about Elliot/Eloise? Maybe this would have complicated the balance of characters, but anyway..
The film resolves itself in a somewhat surprising way. The narrative is flawed, but well-meaning. It is tolerable for a second watching.