BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (2003) ** Yet another thing I like about Steve Martin is that he not just some -Bubba Clinton for example-white guy feigning an affinity with Black culture because he thinks it's cool or that he might benefit somehow. No, Steve's sense of Black culture is very real, as documented here and earlier in his career, in The Jerk . Steve understands that Black people relate to one another in fundamentally different ways than White people do, and that White people could only benefit by getting a little blacker. The early scenes where Queen Latifah is talking past Steve, not because he's trying to be rude but because her motivations don't fit his paradigm, are worthy of any Sociology class. So it's smart, it has a point, and its heart is in the right place. There's no point complaining about a plot that was never intended to be more than skeletal, but as a film it never gets realistic enough to give befitting intellectual cover to its ideals, and never entirely lets go to confess the magic of surrealism. It's all in good fun, though (yes Steve, racism really can be funny if you look at it without PC blinders). Even in the midst of two exemplars of comedic timing (and huge personalities), Eugene Levy generates the best scenes out of mere throwaway lines. He is a freak.
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