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BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE Send This Review to a Friend
Put Steve Martin and Queen Latifah together and you are bound to get a certain amount of laughter. In "Bringing Down the House," directed by Adam Shankman from a screenplay by Jason Filardi, there's also a considerable amount of plot that has to be worked out, which results in the usual weaknesses of films that are conceived as comedies but have to deal with too many wrinkles and resolutions. Such problems aside, Martin and Latifah are funny often enough for enjoying the good parts.
The gambit is that Martin, playing Peter Sanderson, is a successful recently divorced tax attorney who connects on the internet with a woman who cons him into thinking she is a beautiful blonde and also a lawyer. As he finds when he invites her to his house, she (Latifah) is really Charlene, an escaped prisoner who wants help from Sanderson to prove her innocence. He lives in a white neighborhood where the mere appearance of a black woman would be enough to startle nosy neighbors. When Sanderson tries to throw Charlene out of his house, she retaliates with a vengeance.
Martin gets to show off his skills at physical comedy, added to his other comic attributes, and Latifah, a whirlwind force, helps him out of his problem of making nice to the rich uptight Mrs. Arness (Joan Plowright) in order to get her account. Charlene briefly tolerates playing a mammy-type housekeeper. Mrs. Arness's idea of a grand old song to recall at dinner is a slavery spiritual with the lyric "Massa gon' sell us tomorrow." Charlene is not the type to take that gingerly.
There is also Sanderson's obnoxious ex-sister-in-law, who gets into a vicious fight with Charlene in a ladies room. Guess who wins? Eugene Levy is amusing as Sanderson's colleague who gets the hots for the amply built Charlene.
"Bringing Down the House" has much to resolve, including Charlene's problems, Sanderson's trouble at work, where a younger lawyer is competing with him, Sanderson's relationship with his children, getting back with his ex and toughing it out disguised as a home boy in a dangerous but funny face off with African-American toughs. That's a lot for a comedy to carry. Although "Bringing Down the House" doesn't exactly bring down the house, it does have its moments, thanks to the broad talents of Martin and Latifah. A Touchstone Pictures release.
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