“Bringing Down the House” Starring Queen
Latifah, Steve Martin Directed by Adam Shankman
Like many good comedies, “Bringing Down the House”
is funny in an idiotic way, with absolutely hilarious scenes
breathing life into an otherwise monotonous storyline.
In the movie, a lonesome newly divorced attorney, played by
Steve Martin, sets up a blind date with a woman found on the
Internet, only to have a fresh-from-cell-block-four ghetto
princess, played by Queen Latifah, show up at his doorstep.
“Bringing Down the House” is a good comedy because
it generates laughs. At one point in the film, Martin and Latifah
go through a mock sex scene that literally left some theatergoers
in tears.
What keeps, “Bringing Down the House” from being a
great comedy are its played-out, laxative-in-food, ebonics lingo,
cat-fight-in-the-bathroom sort of comedy skits, which are still
funny, but far from original.
There are a few scenes in the film that start to push the
extremes of comedy to a new level ““ most notably a diner
scene in which a livid Latifah contemplates stabbing a racist guest
with a butcher knife. By and large, however, the film refuses to
enter uncharted territory in fear of being too politically
incorrect.
The end result is a funny movie that stops short of being
different.
–Sean Halloran
“The Safety of Objects” Starring Glenn
Close, Dermot Mulroney Directed by Rose Troche
Based on A.M. Homes’ critically acclaimed book of short
stories, “The Safety of Objects” attempts to weave a
single narrative out of those brilliant, but previously unconnected
stories.
Writer-director Rose Troche does a mediocre job of placing the
families from each of the stories on the same street and tying all
of them to a terrible car accident. In her desire to convey an
overarching sense of meaning and connection throughout the film,
Troche errs by clubbing the audience over the head with montage,
extraneous voice-overs, and endless flashbacks.
There are moments in this film that feel as if they might leap
right off the screen to grab you by your nose and drag you down the
idyllic street of its setting until you finally scream out,
“Yes, for Pete’s sake, I understand what you are
saying! Just please make the swelling, emotionally-charged musical
score stop!”
Fortunately for the cast, which includes heavyweights such as
Glenn Close, Dermot Mulroney (“About Schmidt”), and
Mary Kay Place (“Being John Malkovich”), Homes’
characters are so irresistibly meaty even a vegetarian would want
to sink their teeth into them.
The strength of the motivations behind every turn of events
““ however mishandled by Troche ““ leaves room for some
compelling moments. Close is appropriately oblivious as the wife
who berates her caring husband (Robert Klein) for having trouble
dealing with the fact that his son is a vegetable. Mulroney ““
proving once again that his range knows no bounds ““ easily
transitions from being the workaholic lawyer to an overly
enthusiastic mall rat.
The opportunity to see Homes’ work brought to the screen
may be reason enough to check out “The Safety of
Objects.” But in the end, the film tries to draw conclusions
where none needed to be made. Bring your own “object”
to the theater and throw it at the screen when necessary.
–Sommer Mathis