Queen Latifah reigns supreme in 'Bringing Down the House'
By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service
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| BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (PG-13)
Although Adam Shankman's film doesn't quite live up to its title, it comes close. The combination of Steve Martin and Queen Latifah is quirky genius. They elevate each other's games, and get the most possible mileage out of this wildly irreverent, racially charged comedy. Joan Plowright, Eugene Levy and Jean Smart co-star. Touchstone, 105 mins. |
(Good)The combination of Steve Martin and Queen Latifah is quirky genius. They elevate each other's games and get the most possible mileage out of this wildly irreverent, racially charged comedy.
Despite gaps of timing and taste, I will concede that I haven't heard a preview audience laughing so uproariously and consistently in a very long time. Age or race mattered not, nearly everyone laughed from start to finish.
Martin plays Peter Sanderson, a recently divorced tax attorney who's been playing Internet tag with a potential blind date.
He thinks she's a trim, refined blonde. But what turns up on his doorstep is Charlene, a buxom, robust and rowdy woman played by Queen Latifah, who's just recently served time for armed robbery.
Charlene pleads innocence and tries to corral Peter to help clear her name in the courts. Initially, she pursues Peter with intimidation, embarrassing him at every public turn.
But later she adopts a more benevolent approach — and helps Peter deal with his typically challenging children. She also offers advice as Peter tries to win back his ex-wife (Jean Smart).
Adding laughs are a bevy of well-played supporting characters, including Peter's law partner (Eugene Levy) who's got the hots for Charlene, Peter's nosy and wildly racist neighbor (a Betty White like we haven't seen before), and especially Mrs. Arness, an incredibly uptight, conservative billionaire client Peter has been trying to land for his firm.
She's played by the remarkable English actress Joan Plowright, who clearly relishes the chance to poke her highfalutin image. (Wait till you see her stoned, dancing atop a nightclub table.)
The loosey-goosey script by first-time screenwriter Jason Filardi jumps headlong into the racial divide, following the lead of "Bulworth" and "White Men Can't Jump."
For good measure, he and director Adam Shankman toss in raucous tastelessness, no doubt influenced by the Farrelly brothers.
The heart of "Bringing Down the House" is the Queen. Latifah is on the brink of bona fide stardom. Not only does she go toe-to-toe with talented veteran Martin, her challenge has encouraged a return to his wild-and-crazy roots for the first time in years.
Both dive headlong into goofy physical comedy, as well as trading quips and insults with aplomb. Neither is the straight man for the other — they both get laughs.
Latifah also sells the sweetness of the story — perhaps the most challenging but important aspect of her performance.
"Bringing Down the House" is an equal-opportunity insulter — with blacks, whites, conservatives, liberals, kids and the elderly all getting an occasional kick in the teeth. If all that ridicule is going to play, the audience has to detect a sweet wink behind it — and Latifah provides it.
She's a queen, indeed. Long may she reign.
Rated PG-13, with profanity, drug use, innuendo.
