Black or White

Rare is the movie that can eloquently address racial divisiveness without making us feel as if we just took our daily multivitamin—healthy but flavorless. Black or White (PG-13 for strong language) is this year’s vitamin. Acting heavyweights Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer take care of the eloquence—giving nuanced and deeply felt performances—but it is not enough for a film that boils down to a melodramatic public service announcement with our nation’s ongoing racial tensions as the backdrop.

At the center is Elliot (Costner), who learns that a car accident has just claimed his wife—the primary caretaker for the couple’s granddaughter Eloise (Jillian Estell). With both of Eloise’s birth parents out of the picture, Elliot assumes sole custody of the third-grader until Eloise’s paternal grandmother Rowena (Spencer) stakes her claim and embroils the families in a custody battle.

Note that the above paragraph makes no mention of race, and that’s the interesting thing. If you removed race from the story, it would remain intact; but would we still watch it? The film paints an evenhanded picture of the two sides without showing prejudice toward either, even to the point of admitting its own penchant to stereotype. Not long after we meet Reggie (André Holland), the uneducated and destitute junkie who illegitimately fathered Eloise, his uncle angrily voices what every viewer has on his mind—Reggie personifies the stereotype of the black man.

But therein lies the problem with the movie’s attempt to address race. Reggie is a stereotype, but even stereotypes should have hearts. Yet we don’t see his. Reggie says he has overcome his addiction, found work, and wants to start life anew, yet we see no zeal getting past his ills and no remorse over his prodigal life. He disappears when he’s needed most, and we never learn why.

Short monologues peppered throughout frame the film’s discussion of the thornier questions, most notably Costner’s pithy courtroom scene at the end, but one wonders whether it would’ve been better to subtly weave these matters into the story’s fabric. At least it would help us swallow the truth better.​