The Best Man

For a few weeks now I've expressed interest in wanting to see "The Best Man." As a white male, when I said this, most people gave me a look as if I just said, "I'm thinking about investing money in 'Phat Beach II'!" There seems to be a belief that "The Best Man" is not a movie for me because I'm white.

If you were skeptical about seeing "The Best Man" because you're not black, ignore those fillings and go see the movie. It's slow at points, and yes, it does have some tired cliches in it, but it was nice to see a movie where people talked and developed relationships, regardless of their skin color.

"The Best Man" is not a black film. Yes, it stars black people and was made by black people, but it's more a film about one's friendships and how they develop as one grows older. Don't miss it because you don't think it's meant for you.

I was very impressed with The Best Man. As an avid moviegoer, this was the very first Black movie made in recent decades that was done right. As a first major endeavor for Malcolm Lee, my hat is off to him for portraying young, successful, upper-middle class African-Americans in a solid storyline that was at once heart-warming, funny, serious at times, but light at others. Overall... simply very well done. The character's development was executed eloquently and, at times so subtly, I nearly missed some things. The cinematography, costumes and sets were all as they should be: done with class.

This young, successful, upper-middle class African-American says thanks for finally doing it right.

The Best Man is a very entertaining romantic comedy. The ensemble cast clicks and clashes with one another at just the right moments. Taye Diggs's character, Harper, is charming and charismatic, but WHY would he write a book that causes pain to those close to him? Is it to enlighten his friends or to reveal his own frailties? Perhaps, a little of both.

There is a good mix of very funny and also intense emotional moments and the audience is captured; cheering some of the cast and hissing others. It's quite uncanny that transformation occurs for certain characters especially when it's needed. Terrence Howard's character, Quentin, is a prime example. At the beginning of the film Quentin is basically a guy who lacks direction and propriety in his behavior. Over the course of the film, he becomes the voice of wisdom and the glue that holds it together for those closest to him.

Malcolm Lee's directorial debut is quite admirable in this well paced, universally appealing film. Don't miss it.

`The Best Man' is a flawed but generally rewarding romantic drama, featuring a first-rate cast of likeable, talented actors. The film tells the tale of a handsome up-and-coming writer whose first novel has just been published on the eve of his best friend's wedding. The problem is that much of the material in the book has been drawn from autobiographical sources – and now, as old friends gather for the ceremony, the author and best man, Harper Stewart, has to face the fallout from some of the less than flattering portrayals contained therein. In addition, the novel contains the revelations of a few hitherto well-guarded secrets, some of which bear directly on the principals involved in the wedding itself.

Ironically, the primary strength of the film also emerges as its overarching weakness. The movie provides so richly textured a depiction of the interrelationships between and among the wide assortment of characters that it alternately straddles the line between fascination and tedium. On the positive side, writer/director Malcolm D. Lee is not afraid to give the characters their due, to allow them to reveal their many-layered personalities in scenes that play out in real-time tempo and rhythm. One appreciates the fact that we are not being rushed along from one highly dramatic moment to another without time to really get to know the characters as people. The counter effect of this, however, is that the film often seems too talky, self-indulgent and dramatically flat, a fact not helped by the excessive 122-minute running time. In addition, the whole novel-publishing aspect of the story seems both unnecessary and contrived, not to mention lacking in credibility since it becomes a bit difficult to believe that, if he were so terrified about his friends discovering his true perceptions of them, Harper would have written the novel in the first place. Moreover, when we hear voice-over recitations of a few sections of the novel itself, we are struck dumb that so badly written and trite a work could be so critically lauded and commercially successful.

However, the film's virtues do, ultimately, outweigh its imperfections. The actors and actresses turn in uniformly fine performances and the film deals intelligently and sensitively with the age-old issues of the fear of commitment and the two-faced attitude many men have when it comes to female infidelity. Lee, within the context of his characters, confronts these issues with subtlety rather than heavyhandedness and the last half hour or so of the film turns into a very moving celebration of the qualities of acceptance, commitment and sacrifice necessary to make a relationship truly work. `The Best Man' may require a little patience at times to get through, but the reward for those willing to give it a try makes it worth the effort.

I saw this five years ago on DVD and grabbed it the other day in the video store wanting an oldie/goodie. So tired of watching homogenized films about stealing the groom from the bride; cheating on the bride-to-be while on a road-trip in wine country; the sad/depressed bridesmaid/maid-of-honor tragically gets dumped by her escort; blah-blah-blah. What this film offers us instead is something in the eyes of four Af-Am buddies who get together before one of them ties the knot. And there are no race cards pulled. The film does not zero on one of the characters and their drug/alcohol problem, or gang-related problemos, or any stereotypical stuff like that. No- what Malcolm Lee did instead was deliver us with an ensemble cast who just happen to be black, mix in a smooth R & B soundtrack with it and a give us a fun premise.

It's simple: Harper (Diggs) is on the brink of publishing his first novel with characters loosely based on his friends from college. He flies to New York to get together with his buddies before attending his friend's wedding. During that time, he encounters an old flame that got away; the changes in ideology and values with others. But on the night of the bachelor party, Lance (Chestnut) gets his paws on a copy and reads it, puzzling together the composites while blaming Diggs for cheating with his fiancée.

Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Terrence Dashon Howard, Harold Perrineau, Monica Calhoun, Sanaa Lathan, and the rest of all the cast get the fattest props because without their acting, this would've been a train wreck. What makes these characters so unique and human is that they're not stereotypical caricature's and each of them all evolve their own style. Taye Diggs is the quiet pragmatist of them all, yet he's no dork. Morris Chestnut is Lance the football "player"/groom-to-be. Harold Perrineau is the hopelessly, pathetically whipped brother-man with heart and Terrence Dashon Howard (from this year's "Crash")steals every scene he's in as the cynical but cool cat musician buddy. Nia Long is the former flame of Taye Diggs with Sanaa Lathan as his girlfriend.

Yeah, the story is a little predictable. Yeah, it's a little lewd and sexist (the scene at the poker table, but I love those lines: "Bite it!", "Grow it!"). The very ending is something we've seen before, yet it's funny anyway. Only problem was that this film was probably labeled as a "black film" at the time and that was probably why it received such poor box office (a'la "Waiting to Exhale", "Boomerang"). Perhaps Hollywood wasn't ready to see that and preferred a movie about a suburban, white, dysfunctional family instead. Oh, and gave it Best Picture, too.