Black Or White

It's not the movie for those who engage in the culture wars, but everyday people will see it for what it really is, and might appreciate that.

Kevin Costner stars as Elliot – a man who just lost his wife. Struggling with how to move forward as a widower, Elliot’s life is even more complicated because he has to step up and start raising his bi-racial granddaughter, Eloise (Jillian Estell). Elliot and his wife took custody of the kid when her mother, their daughter, passed away. Worst of all, Elliot has a serious drinking problem, which is getting worse as he attempts to drown out the pain.

When Eloise’s grandmother, Rowena (Octavia Spencer), decides the kid might be better off with her, who will win custody of the child?

Who should?

Black Or White is a good movie constantly fluctuating back and forth from clunky to complex. Writer/director Mike Binder should have stuck to the more compelling human drama, because attempts to inject the big debate about race feel like contrived stunts intended to spice it up and bring some attention to the movie. Maybe that is the point and the message.

Black Or White works best when the audience is left to see these are two people, Rowena and Elliot, trying to do the right thing for a child they love as others are complicating matters with supercharged issues surrounding race. These are the scenes where Costner and Spencer shine as each character tries to avoid the drama brought in by others to put their concern where it counts, which makes us better appreciate both Rowena and Elliot.

Costner is very good most of the time, but he does take the drunken scenes a bit too far, especially for an actor who is best at being natural instead of forced and showy. He makes Elliot equally likable and deplorable as he shows the man’s true soul and the troubled soul that makes his life more difficult.

His chemistry with Mpho Koaho (as the hired tutor and driver, Duvan Araga) might strike some as silly and condescending, but I think the two make for a fun pair together, and provide a little comic relief without letting it get out of control or offensive.

Meanwhile, Spencer is great as the woman full of fire and determination. She is perfect at doling out that motherly advice and common sense, which makes you like Spencer more and more, even when her character is forced by the script to act in a very silly, inappropriate manner during some of the court proceedings. It seems beneath the woman we know Rowena to be, so Binder could have cleaned this up.

Black Or White gets too melodramatic at times, and the story takes a few twists and turns that are ridiculous, but you can suffer through the bad parts to enjoy the good ones.

Black Or White is rated PG-13 for brief strong language, thematic material involving drug use and drinking, and for a fight.