Black or White starring Academy Award winners Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves) and Octavia Spencer (The Help) is a good intentioned racial melodrama that involves a custody battle amongst grandparents portrayed by the lead actors, of their granddaughter Eloise (Jillian Estell in a charming performance).
When's Costner's character Elliot's wife dies and Spencer's Rowena wants custody of her as well so that Eloise can live in a house filled with more relatives that she can count on.
This is Kevin Costner's best film role in years and portraying his alcoholic lawyer character is no easy task. A string of bad luck has always been on his side since aside from losing his wife in a car accident, he also lost his daughter while giving birth to Elaine. To add salt to the wound, his absentee granddaughter's Dad Reggie (Andre Holland) is a convicted criminal. Naturally Elliot despises him.
Octavia Spencer's Rowena might be a caricature of the black woman stereotypes that we usually see on the big screen but the Oscar winner rose above it and gave a performance that's a worthy foil to Costner's. Luckily the two have excellent chemistry and it makes Black or White rise above from a material that can easily mistaken for a Tyler Perry and/or a Hallmark movie if not for Costner and Spencer's performances.
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