The Year in Film 2006
Suspension of disbelief, summer 2006:
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| This is an old woman Big Momma's House 2 |
This is an old woman Madea's Family Reunion |
This is a baby Little Man |
This man fathered a child Plot of The Da Vinci Code |
When I look at these statements, the fourth is by far the most believable.
There is something seriously wrong with African-American film (for now, I'm going to define this as "films aimed at African-American" audiences) today. I hate to bring attention to the elephant in the room, but this particular elephant stomped into the room, donned a ridiculous wig and a size 38 dress and then proceeded to dole out unimpressive life lessons in between vacuuming and playing bingo.
Not subtle enough? Sorry. Perhaps you'd prefer the subtlety of Little Man, a film in which the otherwise normal parents (and their otherwise normal friends, family, neighbors and community) can't seem to figure out their adopted "baby" is badly in need of some Grecian formula and a shave.
This summer gave us three particularly lucrative films featuring primarily African American casts. See if you can guess at a theme: In Big Momma's House 2, Martin Lawrence goes undercover, again, disguised as an old black woman. In Madea's Family Reunion, Tyler Perry pulls her extended family together disguised, again, as an old black woman. In Little Man, one of the Wayans brothers playing a jewel thief goes underground, disguised — again — but this time as a baby.
It's ok for the audience to know more than the players — but it shouldn't be all the players and it shouldn't last the whole movie; it shows genuine contempt for the audience.
"Say, isn't that Martin Lawrence in drag?"
"Why, yes. Yes it is."
"Isn't that funny?"
"I suppose it could be if he hadn't been wearing a dress for two full movies now… or if he had the slightest idea how women talk or behave. Right now, even he looks bored doing this schtick."