'Barber Shop' cut above the rest of summer's drivel

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

BARBER SHOP (Rated PG-13 for profanity, adult themes, violence) Three and One-Half Stars (Good-to-Excellent). The owner of a barbershop, under financial pressure, decides to sell his business — then immediately regrets it when he realizes what the shop means to the community. Funny and substantial, with solid ensemble acting, though occasionally lax storytelling. Starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve, Keith David. Directed by Tim Story. MGM Films, 105 minutes.

With age, theoretically, comes wisdom — and regret for the parts of the past that have disappeared forever before you could appreciate them. But the hopeful, thoughtfully funny "Barber Shop" tells a story in which a flash of wisdom changes a young man's perspective before it's too late.

"Barber Shop," an ensemble comedy with a dramatic story, is comprised of disparate elements, not all of which work. But the script (also an ensemble effort) and the warm spirit of the cast (under director Tim Story) give it surprising weight by the end.

Ice Cube plays Calvin, who inherited a financially beleaguered barbershop in a high-crime Chicago neighborhood from his late father. His story takes place in a single day, which gives the film solid forward momentum.

Faced with mounting tax bills and threats of foreclosure by the bank (as well as impending fatherhood), Calvin decides to sell his shop to the neighborhood loan shark (Keith David). Almost the moment he does, he realizes just what the shop has meant to its regulars, its employees and the neighborhood.

A less-successful subplot involves a hip-hop Laurel and Hardy (Anthony Anderson and Lahmard Tate), who steal from a bank. Their scenes work best when Anderson ("Two Can Play that Game") is on-screen; he has some of the brightest comic instincts in the film.

Otherwise, the best scenes spring from the give-and-take, the push-pull within the barbershop, a place where "you can talk about whoever and whatever you want," according to Ed (Cedric the Entertainer), the shop's resident sage.

But they're all commentators, jockeying for position in this insular sanctum. Sure, all the black barbers crack on the lone white barber (Troy Garity of "Bandits"), a hip-hop wannabe. But they also snipe at each other, whether it's the college-educated Jimmy (Sean Patrick Thomas of "Save the Last Dance") looking down his nose at ex-con Ricky (newcomer Leonard Earl Howze) or Terri (rap star Eve), the shop's lone female, raising hell about the men drinking the apple juice she leaves in the communal refrigerator.

And this place is their country club, where they can dish the dirt about everything from women to the youth of today. They can also express opinions they'd never air anywhere else in public.

Calvin's dilemma — lose the shop to the bank or the loan shark — leads to a not-particularly fresh conclusion. But this is a movie that's more about the getting of wisdom than the plausible solution of problems.

Cube leads a strong cast that includes the reliable Cedric the Entertainer and a wonderfully sinister David. Together, they create a sense of a community-gathering place, one that holds together a whole neighborhood threatened by extinction. The notion of taking responsibility for one's community, of contributing instead of only receiving, gives "Barber Shop" a substance too few movies achieve.

Rated PG-13 for profanity, adult themes, violence.