Latifah Soars Even if Wright Goes Wrong
Successful physical therapist Leslie Wright (Queen Latifah) is a die hard New Jersey Nets fan who feels the pain of every defeat and the exultation of every victory. So imagine her wonderment and awe when she runs into the team’s best player Scott McKnight (Common) late night at a gas station, a moment of kindness on her part gaining her a VIP invitation to the professional athlete’s star-studded birthday party.
Queen Latifah and Common in Fox Searchlight's Just Wright
Bringing her gold digging sister Morgan Alexander (Paula Patton) along with her, Leslie is hardly surprised to find the basketball player is smitten with the sexy younger woman and quickly starts a relationship with her. But after a devastating injury leaves his career in jeopardy, Scott’s romantic dreams are suddenly put on hold as he tries to rehabilitate in time to come back to his team before the end of the playoffs. With Leslie, not Morgan, by his side the two work nonstop to make sure the NBA star’s best days are still in front of him, not realizing that do feelings stronger than friendship are quietly blossoming between them.
I have to big problems with the new romantic drama Just Wright. The first is that Michael Elliot’s (Like Mike, Brown Sugar) script offers up no surprises whatsoever. I knew were this one was going from the start, the whole thing as forgone a conclusion as Meryl Streep getting nominated seemingly every year for an Oscar. This is as by the numbers as anything I’ve seen this year, and those expecting anything different or new have another thing coming and then some.
My other issue with the film is the way it sanitizes the NBA. Maybe I’m still holding a grudge since my Supersonics were brutally stolen away from me but I don’t think anyone who even slightly calls themselves a fan of the game are going to recognize their beloved sport here. Sure real life players like Dwight Howard and Dwayne Wade make cameo appearance to give the air of legitimacy, but the way the professional sport is depicted is beyond hogwash. There is no semblance to reality at all, the whole thing as whitewashed a representation as any I could have possibly imagined.
Even though this is the case, largely thanks to the efforts of Latifah this movie is hardly a waste of time. Much like the even more cliché and familiar (if slightly more enjoyable) Last Holiday the actress takes places the material upon her lovely shoulders and runs with it with zestful exuberance. She is a pleasure to watch, and like so many of her previous efforts this is another instance where she does far more for the motion picture than the motion picture does for her.
Another plus is the fact that, in spite of the over familiarity of it all, this is an African American-led romantic drama that isn’t a broad, annoying and borderline unforgivable Tyler Perry-like travesty. There is intelligence here, the two main players pleasingly adult creations that thankfully look and act their age. Director Sanaa Hamri (Something New) keeps the pace light and the tone more or less above board, doing her best to stay out of the gutter even when Elliot’s screenplay (especially in regards to Morgan) keeps trying to take it there.
I just wish there had been more chemistry between the leads, because if there had been maybe I could have more easily overlooked all my major problems with the production. Sadly this just isn’t so, Common just not a good enough actor to convey all of Scott’s highs and lows needed to make me believe his falling in love with Leslie could honestly come to pass. I didn’t buy him in this, not as a basketball player and not as a romantic love interest, and no matter how effortless Latifah made it all look not once did I ever think he was coming close to matching her.
As a showcase for Latifah Just Wright does have a lot going for it. She’s as likeable as ever, and primarily thanks to her I can’t say sitting in my theatre seat I was ever bored or that I wished to be someplace else. Unfortunately I just didn’t think that was enough, and thanks to the script’s inadequacies and the unbelievably of the central romance thanks to the her and Common’s lack of chemistry the bad sadly outweighed the good making Just Wright an ill-fated dunk attempt that bounces off of the back rim.
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
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