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BRINGING
DOWN THE HOUSE
2/10
USA 2003
: Adam SHANKMAN : 105 mins
Spike Lee reportedly
refused to see Bringing Down the House as he thought it sounded
like an offensive take on contemporary US race and class relations. Such
a stance defines the word ‘prejudice’ pretty well – but in this case it
turns out Spike was spot on: he’s done himself a big favour by refusing
to waste time on what turns out to be a very sub-standard comedy. Even
Shankman’s shoddy J-Lo vehicle The
Wedding Planner is a cut above this mirthless effort, every plot
point of which relies on ludicrous and tiresome coincidence and/or contrivance.
Straight-laced
lawyer Peter (Steve Martin) is lonely after divorcing his wife Kate (Jean
Smart). He starts an internet chat-room romance with a correspondent known
only as ‘Lawyergirl,’ and arranges a blind date – but rather than the
cool, poised blonde of his imagination, Lawyergirl turns out to be hefty
black sex-bomb Charlene (Queen Latifah), an ex-con who wants Peter to
help clear her name. Peter’s shocked refusal sets off various laboured
would-be-comic shenanigans that end up having plenty of “unexpectedly”
beneficial effects on every aspect of his life.
The problems
are straightforward: Jason Filardi’s script simply doesn’t contain enough
good jokes or sufficiently comic scenes, and Shankman lacks the directorial
skills to bring it all to life. Martin and Latifah throw themselves energetically
into their roles, but too often they cross the line between broad comedy
and desperate ‘mugging’, Martin especially – and Shankman either can’t
or won’t stop them going way over the top. In the supporting cast, talents
like Smart and Eugene Levy are wasted in thankless roles: Levy’s Howie
seems included solely to provide Charlene with a love-match towards the
end of the movie. Howie is needed because Filardi has Peter and Kate drifting
back together, even though Kate was in the middle of what seemed like
a very satisfying new romance with young stud Glenn (Victor Webster) -
who simply vanishes from the movie when his character becomes inconvenient
to the clunky plotting.
More worryingly,
isn’t it bizarre to have a supposed ‘romantic comedy’ such as this where
the leads don’t actually end up together? Could the film-makers really
feared that American audiences are still not ready to see a black woman
and a WASP man live happily ever after? Filardi includes two female characters
whose racism towards Charlene is blatant: Kate’s cartoonishly evil sister-in-law
Ashley (Missi Pyle) and Peter’s homophobic (Jewish??) neighbour Mrs Kline
(Betty White). But neither get the climactic come-uppance which they deserve
and we expect. Filardi and Shankman are too busy spinning out embarrassing
scenes like Peter’s visit to a downtown nightclub where he adopts cringingly
sub-Bulworth ‘wigga’ clothes and slang: half the movie’s jokes
involve the well-spoken Peter getting his tongue around ‘gangsta’ lingo,
while the remainder mainly consist of stuck-up white folks getting unsettled
and befuddled by Charlene’s mere presence.
It certainly
doesn’t help matters, meanwhile, that Shankman rams home every development
by cranking up Lalo Schifrin’s overbearing score, or that he allows cinematographer
Julio Macat to occasionally shoot Martin using a slight - but noticeable
and distracting - gauzy effect to hide his advancing years, especially
when the age-gap between Peter and Charlene is supposed to be part of
the gag. And what is that title supposed to mean, exactly? Charlene certainly
shakes up Peter’s dull existence, but demolishing his property never features
on her list of achievements. There’s a double meaning, of course, ‘Bringing
Down the House’ as in ‘causing gales of laughter’ - an event extremely
unlikely to occur in any cinema unlucky enough to play host to this misfire.
20th
May, 2003
(seen same day: Warner Village, Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
For other films
rated 1 and 2/10 check out The Diorama of Dishonour
by Neil
Young
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