Black or White very much a movie of the past

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      Starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer. Rated PG.

      The feeling that Selma is being snubbed stems from the sense that white audiences don’t want to hear stories about racism in which they aren’t the heroes, or at least noble exceptions to the rule.

      Although it was doubtless made with fine intentions and contains consistently strong acting from its star, who also helped produce it, Black or White is very much a movie of the past. (The title was originally Black and White, but perhaps the studio was afraid audiences would think that was the movie’s format.)

      Kevin Costner plays Elliot Anderson, the grandfather of spunky little Eloise (charming newcomer Jillian Estell), who lost her teenage mother in childbirth. Now the girl has lost her principal caregiver—her grandmother—in a car accident. Big-shot corporate lawyer Elliot is confronted by his absentee status when suddenly handed parental duties and responds, as is his habit, by hitting the hooch. We’re talking swilling Scotch at the high-toned private school where he drops her off.

      As with everything else here, writer-director Mike Binder (also behind Costner’s last big kick at the can, The Upside of Anger) pushes things too far, usually to relieve tension with unneeded comedy but also to raise the dramatic stakes in a situation that—frankly, my dear—isn’t all that damnable, compared with Ferguson et al.

      The main conflict is provided by the kid’s other grandma, who wants more access. Played by the always-terrific Octavia Spencer, this should be an equivalent role, especially since her Rowena Jeffers is a self-made businesswoman with a lot to offer, including a big, friendly, diversely gendered, highly musical family who all seem to get along with Elliot, despite his Michael Douglas–like crankiness. But they live on the wrong side of L.A. and she’s saddled with the infantilizing nickname of Wee-Wee, as well as a sharklike lawyer brother (Anthony Mackie) and a crack-addicted son (André Holland, who was also in Selma). They come after Elliot in court and are not allowed the kind of flashbacks-with-’60s-soul-music that he enjoys with his deceased wife (Jennifer Ehle). No flashbacks for Wee-Wee, and Eloise doesn’t even get to speak for herself.

      So, in the end, that old message isn’t quite gone with the wind: your better black folks are fine for providing entertainment and emotional support. But if they actually want something, look out!

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