'Bringing Down the House' brings in the laughs

Photo courtesy of KRT

Steve Martin, left, Queen Latifah and Eugene Levy star in "Bringing Down the House"

By Blaine Martin
Staff Writer

Opposites do attract, and nowhere is this more visible than in "Bringing Down the House", directed by Adam Shankman.

Steve Martin (Peter Sanderson) and Queen Latifah ( Charlene Morton ) play a pair forced together by unusual circumstances. Sanderson is a tax lawyer who thinks he's met an intelligent female attorney online - a shapely blonde, according to the picture attached to her profile. When she shows up at his house for dinner, however, he gets an unwelcome surprise - a convict fresh from a jail-break named Charlene Morton, who is also African American.

Charlene wants Peter to prove her innocence in the armed robbery that sent her to jail. Peter forces her out his home. Charlene screams about bearing his love child until he has to let her in. Charlene's jive-talkin', head boppin' routine is deceptive. Though full of snappy attitude, she provides sound advice to Peter on talking to his teenage daughter as well as romancing his ex-wife.

Eugene Levy as Peter’s trusted colleague, Howie Rottman, offers, by far, the movie's funniest performance. From his first glance of Charlene, he has the hots for her throughout, and even goes into hilarious lapses of hip-hop lingo with ever encounter.

Ashley, played by Missi Pyle, is Peter's former sister-in-law and quickly make her contempt of Charlene painfully clear. Their animosity piques in a heated locker-room fight scene with a delightful ending.

Peter's nosy neighbor, played by Betty White, can't fathom a minority family buying a house in their neighborhood. To avoid shocking her, Charlene must be sneaked into Peter's house.

Likewise, Peter attempts to land the billion dollar business of Mrs. Arness, a heiress, played by Joan Plowright. She warmly recalls memories of her family's history of slave ownership, as Charlene, posing as a cook, fumes in disgust.

The most glaring fault with the movie is the way racial issues are dealt with. From early on, Charlene is pitted against most white people that cross her path. In this world, white people are either devoid of personality or outwardly racist, while most black people are embarrassingly loud and obnoxious. The formula was not at all daring - an interracial kiss would have spiced up the movie.

"Bringing Down the House," predictably, breaks no new ground as a comedy or as a vehicle to address whites' misconceptions about blacks. However, Martin and Queen Latifah made a decent team, and Levy pushes the film into the above- average realm. Overall, it's a funny film and well worth the ticket price.

March 27, 2003 Issue