Black or White

Black or White may be the title, but there are plenty of gray areas tackled in this good ol' fashioned family dramedy from standup comic turned filmmaker Mike Binder (Reign Over Me, The Upside of Anger). Pitting a binge drinking Kevin Costner against an outspoken Octavia Spencer in a battle for custody over their beloved granddaughter, this well-performed and occasionally amusing affair has a distinctively '90s feel to it, laying on the sauce rather thick at times, although it still creates a believable story that raises questions about parenthood and racial prejudice in modern-day Los Angeles.

A somewhat clumsy opening scene introduces us to California lawyer Elliot Anderson (Costner), whose wife has just died in a car wreck, leaving the man with little consolation outside a home bar fully stocked with Scotch. But he does have one remaining hope in life: his mixed-race 7-year-old granddaughter, Eloise (newcomer Jillian Estell), who has been living with him ever since the girl's mother died in childbirth and her drug addicted father, Reggie (Andre Holland), landed in jail.

Trying to cope with his granddaddy duties as he slowly drinks himself into oblivion, Elliot manages to keep things afloat for the time being, especially after hiring an overqualified math tutor, Duvan (Mpho Koaho), to serve as right-hand man and provide some necessary comic relief to the household. Yet just when things are picking up, he's paid a visit by Eloise's paternal grandmother, Rowena (Spencer), a loving but iron-fisted matriarch whose boggle-eyed glare is enough to push back an army, and who soon takes it upon herself to demand custody of her granddaughter through the help of hotshot nephew lawyer, Jeremiah (Anthony Mackie).

"Inspired by a true incident" per the opening credits, the screenplay by Binder paints a broad but credible portrait of a fractured family living on opposite sides of Los Angeles' racial barrier, with Elliot carousing around his massive suburban mansion while Rowena shelters relatives in a Compton abode across the street from a crack den. Yet neither household is shown to be a total movie cliche, and the script intelligently navigates both domains to reveal how they have more in common than they may imagine, especially when it concerns the best interests of their granddaughter.

As Rowena blindly continues her legal pursuits just as Reggie pops back into the picture, the race question is eventually brought into play and even becomes a major factor in the ensuing trial, especially after Elliot drops an n-bomb that's used against him in court. Various plot mechanics, some of them rather heavy-handed (Is Reggie really dumb enough to smoke crack on the porch in front of his mother's house?), lead to a resolution that predictably shows how little race ultimately matters, although Black or White never panders too easily to sentiments, creating characters who are riddled with flaws but likeable all the same.

Such is the case with Elliot, and as both producer and star this is clearly Costner's film for the taking. It's a pleasure to see the seasoned actor approaching this kind of role after a recent run of genre-related material (Man of Steel, 3 Days to Kill), reteaming with Binder (whom he worked with on The Upside of Anger) to play a man whose life has been riddled with tragedy but who still has a fighting spirit and dark sense of humor. (Costner can also still play a convincing drunk, which is no easy task.)

The rest of the cast is excellent, starting with Spencer and her guns-a-blazing portrayal of Rowena, and moving down to the terrific young Koaho, who sparks the most laughs with his depiction of an African immigrant who's the smartest guy in the room and not afraid to say it.

While the acting is strong and the storytelling smoothly handled, there's nothing all that distinguishing about the direction itself, and the film often has the look and feel of something made in the early 1990s, especially when it overuses a rather schmaltzy score by jazzman Terence Blanchard (Inside Man). Indeed, the presence of Costner (who definitely looks young for a granddad) could further situate Black or White a few decades ago, and only the occasional iPad is there to remind us that for better or for worse, race matters as much now as it did back then.

MovieStyle on 01/30/2015