Bringing Down the House (2003)

[7]

Steve Martin and Queen Latifah star in this farcical comedy about a prison escapee who elbows her way into an uptight lawyer’s life so he can help her overturn her wrongful conviction. Most of the laughs in Bringing Down the House come from the black/white culture clash, as Latifah tries to make Martin ‘cool’ and Martin tries to help Latifah pass through racist white culture without turning too many heads. The movie steps well past the boundaries of political-correctness in ways that even twenty years later we probably wouldn’t find in a mainstream comedy. And that’s a shame, because some of the funniest parts are the ones meant to knock us out of our comfort zones, including Martin’s not-so-stealthy infiltration of a seedy urban dive, and supporting player Joan Plowright’s mortifying rendition of a slave-time spiritual in front of a stunned Latifah.

As much as the script pushes the line, it doesn’t really break the mold. If anything, it does a good job plowing through formula on its way to the next comic set-piece. It’s the all-star cast that really make Bringing Down the House worth watching. Martin and Latifah are reliable enough, but director Adam Shankman (Hairspray) surrounds them with scene-stealing supporting players like Eugene Levy as Latifah’s over-the-top romantic admirer, Missi Pile as a snobby gold-digger, and Betty White as the most ridiculously racist, homophobic neighbor you could imagine. With Jean Smart and Michael Rosenbaum.