Binder's pal Kevin Costner, who he worked with on the enjoyable but heavy-handed The Upside of Anger, stars as lovable drunk Elliot, a powerful but curmudgeonly attorney whose wife (Jennifer Ehle) has just died. That leaves him alone to take care of 8-year-old Eloise (the excellent Jillian Estel), the interracial granddaughter born to his daughter who died in childbirth. The father, Reggie (Andre Holland), is one of those triflin' ass black people; a crackhead who disappeared and has barely been in the girl's life. When he does show up it's usually to ask for money because...well, he's triflin'. Eloise's paternal grandmother Rowena (Octavia Spencer) thinks she should spend time with their side of the family, which is a fair request. She's not so bad, but she runs a bunch of sketchy businesses from her garage and enables Reggie's triflin' ass. So naturally Rowena and Elliot don't get along, and the custody dispute starts to get ugly when she hires her sleazy brother (Anthony Mackie) as the attorney.
On the face of it the whole thing is silly, but it gets worse as Binder puts down every single African-American in the film just to make his point. The depth of Reggie's personal demons unfolds any time Elliot's stability as a guardian comes into question. For instance, Elliot hires Duvan (Mpho Koaho), a dorky African tutor to help with Eloise's studies, but he ends up just being the driver for when he's too drunk to drive. Hardy har har. Elliot's alcoholism is merely a gimmick but is never portrayed as a detriment to his value as a caretaker. Even when he drops the dreaded N-word at one point it's barely an issue. On the other hand, Reggie's drug abuse is just the gateway to deeper issues that rule him out as a father-figure outright. Need him to be a shady grifter? Sure, there's that. Need him to be violent, too? Okay, got it. It wouldn't be so bad if Rowena, or some other character with melanin, had the opportunity to express their side of the debate. There are plenty of natural reasons why Eloise should at least split time with her families, but we never get to hear them. Any time a serious examination of race threatens to break out Binder either hides behind lame jokes (usually involving the super lame Duvan) or ugly stereotypes.Costner gives a stern but engaging performance, though, and his scenes with Estell are marvelous. She's a real talent, and yes the character is a bit pre-packaged perky, but there's nuance as Eloise begins to play both sides of the family against one another in a bid for attention. In the midst of all their squabbling, the families kind of forget what the fight is really about. And of course, everything leads to a chance for Elliot to give a rousing speech on race, the kind that's supposed to tie up a complicated issue with a neat little bow. What's interesting about it is how frank Elliot gets in explaining his own prejudices, admitting that he recognizes race first. But then he judges people by what they do, and of course that's how it should always be in reality. However, it's only the African-Americans whose actions are in question, and of course they all come to see things as Elliot would have them see it because their opinions don't truly matter.
The worst thing about Black or White is that it's just simplistic enough that people who don't want to think too much about race relations will "get" where it's coming from. They may even think it profound. But it's not. Given the problems with race this country still has to contend with, Black or White isn't just bad it's completely ignorant.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
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