Starring: Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, Monica Calhoun, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Nia Long
Directed by: Malcolm D. Lee
Running time: 124 minutes
Parental guidance: 14A: coarse and sexual language
Rating: Two and a half stars out of five
Even if the beginning is an unintelligible mishmash of images, it’s worth sticking around for this impossibly long holiday weekend, if only for the clothes.
Featuring what appear to be Burberry casuals, Versace suits, Boss accessories — not to mention the best in branded athletic finery — The Best Man Holiday deserves endless raves for its sartorial splendour, but Malcolm D. Lee’s effort to revisit his 1999 comedy, The Best Man, with a full cast reunion doesn’t have much cinematic style. Directed more like a soap opera, Lee moves from storyline to storyline almost randomly. He also doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to tell a story — once he decides to settle on one of his many fictions.
The core character is Harper (Taye Diggs), a writer and journalist who makes it big but hits a slump just as he’s invited to a party at his old buddy Lance’s house.
Lance (Morris Chestnut) is a successful football player who married Mia (Monica Calhoun), a former flame of Harper’s, but is now a kind, caring and somewhat saintly mother of several very polite children.
Harper doesn’t want to go to the Christmas weekend party because he feels like a loser compared to his buddies — including Quentin (Terrence Howard) and Julian (Harold Perrineau) — but when he starts thinking about the possibility of writing a biography of Lance, he agrees to go.
That’s plenty of plot right there, but Lee seems to enjoy writing these films and letting his characters say all the things one might want to say in real life, but never have the right timing or inspiration to pull off.
This is the film’s biggest strength because there are thoughtful chunks of dialogue that touch on everything from spiritual faith to a white woman’s ability to give great oral sex. Say what?!Read more at: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Movie+review+Best+Holiday+great+clothes+much/9167546/story.html
