Bringing Down The House Movie Review:


Bringing Down the House is a ludicrous comedy that has one bright spot, Queen Latifah. There are some laugh-out loud moments, but most of the film's racist humor is over the top. The predictability of the characters and the story are also areas of struggle throughout the film.

Peter Sanderson (Martin) is a successful jerk lawyer that doesn't have any time to spend with his kids, which has left him divorced from their mother, Kate (Smart). However, he does have enough time to play around in chat rooms and develop a relationship with an instant-messenger buddy who calls herself "lawyergirl". Peter and his new online friend decide to finally meet with a date at his home after flirting with one another for weeks.

Peter, a sophisticated 50-year old white man finds out that his online girlfriend is actually named Charlene (Latifah), who is a young, street-talking black woman that is also an ex-con. With Charlene making his life a living hell (throwing parties, embarrassing his clients, not leaving his house), Peter finally agrees to help clear her name in the crime that sent her to prison, which Charlene claims that she innocent. After many different cultural clashes with one another, Peter learns that Charlene has become an asset to his friends and kids. She helps his young son with reading, his teenage daughter with dating, and has Peter's best friend, Howie (Levy), falling head over heels for her. The stereotypical racial slurs continue to be thrown back and forth from characters and weak subplots expose quickly through the last half of the film.

Screenwriter Jason Filardi and director Adam Shankman developed the plot of teaming up two total opposites (Peter and Charlene), who eventually wind up helping get each other's lives together. Shankman, who previously directed The Wedding Planner (2001), enjoys telling stories of relationships between opposites. He of course keeps the film cheery and the language at a PG-13 rating. Filardi's script is where the film runs into problems. There is sure unbalance of supporting characters with Peter having many established counterpoints, one example is his racist neighbor played by Betty White, but Charlene's only counterpoint is Widow, played by The Practice's Steve Harris. The bottom line is that Peter has his own established camaraderie and Charlene doesn't, even though the film centers on both of the characters. The humor is at times amusing, but there are a few moments where it is pushed over the edge. An example is when Peter's ex-sister in law and Charlene duke it out in a long brutal fistfight. The scene runs about 5 minutes long, when if should have taken about 30 seconds to a minute. The characters making verbal slangs to communicate in different environments works initially, but it is once again overdone with Steve Martin's Peter attempting to do what Warren Beatty did in Bulworth (1998). Honestly, a lot of the film's jokes I laughed at, but others I found weakly presented and constructed. The script itself had to go through many rewrites because Queen Latifah objected to be involved until the script was toned down some. It still needs a lot of work; in fact the original ending of the film went so bad with test audiences that Shankman had to reshoot it.

Queen Latifah shines in this comedy as the quick talking Charlene. As an actress, Latifah seems to be getting better and better. With her role in Chicago (2002) and this film, she proves that she can carry a film with her commanding charisma. Steve Martin delivers a typical one-dimensional "Steve Martin" performance as Peter. Martin is a good comedic actor, but he tends to never expand out of his comfort roles like ones in The Out-Towners (1999) and Bringing Down the House. The lovable Eugene Levy steals a few moments in the film as Peter's best friend that falls for Charlene. The talented Joan Plowright, in a role she is a lot better than, begins delivering her comedic moments in the last few minutes of the film.

Bringing Down the House is a comedy that one could call stupid escapism fun. The subplots are weak, the supporting characters are weak, the racist humor is over the top, and the ending is a total mess. If you can look past some of these elements and admire the performance by Queen Latifah, you more or less should have some fun time with this film.

Report Card Grade: C

Joseph C. Tucker

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