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Old joke, some new laughs
Steve Martin and Queen Latifah save the tired premise of Bringing Down the House.
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 6, 2003
[Photo: Buena Vista Pictures]
To try to exonerate a prison escapee played by Queen Latifah, Steve Martin’s uptight lawyer ends up in a hip-hop club.
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There's nothing complex about the concept of Bringing Down the House, a one-joke comedy that might just as easily have been made 20 years ago. Here it is: Uptight WASP lawyer's life is turned upside down by the arrival of a sassy, soulful prison escapee hoping to prove her innocence. Riotous complications ensue.
We've been here before, or somewhere in the neighborhood.
Adam Shankman, director of the bland A Walk to Remember and The Wedding Planner, doesn't bring anything new to the race-relations premise. To the contrary, Shankman and rookie screenwriter Jason Filardi turn in several sequences that border on the overtly insensitive: See the black woman roll her eyes at overt bigotry passed off as ignorant but harmless insults. See the white guy look dorky as he tries to get down to hip-hop rhythms at a nightclub.
Still, credit is due big time to Queen Latifah and Steve Martin for gamely using this overworked material as a quick route to vivid performances, often funny enough to provoke laughing out loud.
Latifah, as charismatic as she was in Chicago, and Martin, more seriously goofy and rubbery faced than he has been in ages, have so much chemistry that it's sad when their characters gravitate to other love interests.
Charlene Morton (Latifah) harasses Peter Sanderson (Martin) in person after establishing an e-mail relationship that has both of them telling white lies.
Bit by bit, she insinuates herself into his life, moving into his house, befriending his children, (Kimberly J. Brown and Angus T. Jones), encouraging his affections for his ex-wife (Jean Smart) and accidentally tempting his business partner, Howie (Eugene Levy, on the mark as usual).
"Oh, swing it, you cocoa goddess," Howie exclaims upon first seeing Charlene. Later, she refers to him as "freak boy." Peter calls Charlene "Oprah," and she calls him "P. Diddy." Yes, that's the tenor of the humor here.
Charlene's nominal reason for entering Peter's life is to clear herself of charges related to her alleged role in an armed robbery. The real motivation, of course, is to provide an excuse for this brassy, plus-size black outsider to interact with patently unhip members of the white upper-middle class.
Despite the tired concept, the lead actors make Bringing Down the House worth watching. So, too, do a number of performers in secondary roles, including Levy, Betty White as an openly bigoted neighbor, Joan Plowright as a stuffy widow given to singing Negro spirituals at the dinner table and Missi Pyle (Josie and the Pussycats) as an athletic bimbo preying on ancient rich men. It's funny stuff, with a slight aftertaste of guilt.
Bringing Down the House
- Grade: B
- Director: Adam Shankman
- Cast: Steve Martin, Queen Latifah, Eugene Levy, Joan Plowright, Jean Smart, Kimberly J. Brown, Angus T. Jones, Missi Pyle, Michael Rosenbaum, Betty White.
- Screenplay: Jason Filardi
- Rating: PG-13; bawdy humor, sexual innuendo, mature subject matter
- Running time: 105 min.
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