Movie Review: BLACK or WHITE

I was given access to a screening of the movie in order to facilitate my review. However all opinions expressed are 100% my own.

BLACK or WHITE is one of the movies that I really wanted to see this year. I don’t watch a lot of movies but every once in a while one (or two) will come along and I say “I bet that is a great movie!” So when I was offered the chance to see it before it hits theaters on Friday January 30, 2015. I will tell you that I did cry a lot in this movie but you all know how sensitive I am.

The movie opens with Elliot Anderson (Costner) dealing with two tragedies by driving headlong into the bottle. First was the death of his daughter at the age of 17-years-old, when she died giving birth to his biracial granddaughter Eloise (Jillian Estell), who he and his wife have cared for ever since. Now his wife (Jennifer Ehle) is killed in a car crash the night before which leaves him alone to raise Eloise. As a high-power attorney Elliot can certainly provide Eloise any and everything she could ever want except the structure of a stable family unit. That is where  Eloise’s lower middle-class African-American grandmother Rowena (Octavia Spencer) comes in. She is the mother of the man who got Elliot’s daughter pregnant and who has spent the time since on drugs or in jail or both.  After Elliot turns down the idea of shared custody a lawsuit for full custody of Eloise is launched.

I adored this movie! Like I said I cried my way through it and although I will say I do take issue with some of the drinking that Mr. Costner does in the film (he has a bottle in the car and fills his glass at one point) I can certainly understand how someone could be led to do that. Of course the issue of race comes up in this movie and although I will admit that it is not as realistic as that issue can be (horrible remarks have been made to me about my children in public) I will say that it is handled beautifully.