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Bringing Down the House |
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Sex and racism. Viewers who cackle
hysterically over those two subjects will find
Bringing Down the House a laugh a
minute. However, families uncomfortable with
a young boy reading aloud from a porn mag,
or country-clubbing bigots cracking Aunt
Jemima jokes, will leave the theater more
rankled than regaled. The screen is abuzz with
insufferable white people who spew ignorant,
decades-old black stereotypes.
Steve Martin plays Peter, an uptight,
divorced attorney trying to land a big account
for his equally uptight firm. Into his life strides
Charlene (Latifah), a soulful ex-con who has
spent the past four years in prison for a crime
she didn’t commit. She convinces Peter to
help clear her name. In return, she loosens
him up and reconnects him with his wife and
two children (Charlene’s methods include a
values-neutral approach to parenting, and
solving complex marital problems simply by
unlocking his inner sexual beast). Quick-fix
reconciliation extends to Peter’s stodgy prized
client, a dowager who has her racial prejudice
cured when, after getting dragged to a
downtown club, she gets high with two young
black men.
Also in the House are several
dozen profanities, lots of social drinking,
simulated sex (straddling and grinding on the
dance floor) and some unexpected moments
of violence (women engage in a wild brawl;
gunplay ends with someone getting
shot).
Still wild and crazy, Steve Martin can be
funny and likable as an aging guy struggling to
keep up with change. But content matters, and
the socially inept Bringing Down the House
is no Father of the Bride.
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