For the 2007 holiday movie season, there are two Christmas flicks featuring African Americans, and The Perfect Holiday is the latest release. While the ambition of black filmmakers and faith from the studios to invest in another film catering to the black audience could signal a changing tide for blacks in Hollywood, The Perfect Holiday falls short of its intention.
Lance Rivera directed and co-wrote The Perfect Holiday, and the film’s imperfections ring clear from the get-go.
The film is supposed to be a family-love, happy holiday story where the guy gets the girl (and the kids) and they ride off into the snowy sunset towards a happily-ever-after with a merry Christmas for starters.
Queen Latifah stars in and produces The Perfect Holiday, a film that pairs Gabrielle Union and Morris Chestnut, who seem to be the Rock Hudson and Doris Day of the contemporary black movie scene.
And while they have mastered their chemistry (probably through repetition), the rest of the cast – which includes Terrence Howard, Jill Mare Jones, Rachel True – seem mismatched.
Union’s Valley-girl accent and prep-school mannerisms are a far cry from the gangsta-rapper-turned-mogul J-Jizzy (played by Charlie Murphy), who is supposed to be her former husband.
The sensitive and insightful Benjamin character played by Chestnut couldn’t be more different from his goofy right-hand man played by Faizon Love. While the character variations could have made for an interesting mix of personalities to enliven The Perfect Holiday, it doesn’t happen.
Comedians Love, Murphy and Katt Williams could have provided comic relief to compensate for the shortcomings of a predictable storyline and lack of ensemble chemistry. Instead, they provide sporadic chuckles without a hint of strategy.
Even with all of its flaws, the audience managed to connect with the film. At its best, the movie is cute. That seemed to be enough to satisfy the crowd.
The Perfect Holiday opened in theatres nationwide on December 12. The film is rated PG with a running time of 96 minutes.
I Am Legend
Based on the 1950’s Richard Matheson novel of the same name, I Am Legend features Will Smith’s return to the big screen as the lone survivor of a man-made chemical virus that has wiped out the entire planet.
Again, the film is a sign of the progression of Hollywood, because the role played by Smith could have been given to Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, George Clooney or any of the mainstream “it men” actors.
But it is Smith who portrays Dr. Robert Neville, a military officer who refuses to give up on finding a cure for a virus created for the good of man that has gone terribly wrong.
(As did his son Jaden Smith in last year’s Pursuit of Happyness, Smith’s daughter Willow Smith also makes her movie debut as his on-screen daughter.)
I Am Legend is reminiscent of the 2000 film Castaway starring Tom Hanks, which mostly tracks one character living in solitude. The back-story is told via flashback with viewers being left on the edge of their seats as they wait through fast forwards of solitude to get to the next snippet of information as to why this guy is living in complete isolation and desolation in New York City.
Besides the addition of action-genre motifs, the major difference between Castaway and I Am Legend is that, even with the complete lack of human interaction, director Francis Lawrence manages to take advantage of Smith’s wit and comedic timing.
Still, so much alone time does make the film drag. For the better part of an hour, Smith is wandering haphazardly throughout the city on missions that are in the beginning mostly left for up to the imagination of the viewer. In his character’s desperation, Smith displays the basic human need to connect with other humans.
When the action in this film finally does kicks in, it hits like a hammer.
I Am Legend opens in theatres on Friday, December 14. The film is rated R with a running time of 100 minutes.
