The Chocolate Review: "Just Wright"

After eagerly awaiting the release of Fox Searchlight’s Just Wright The Chocolate Review found itself unexpectedly let down by a film that seemed like it couldn’t lose. We went into Just Wright wanting to fall in love with everything about it. Instead we left the theatre feeling Just Wrong about all our high expectations.

Directed by Sanaa Hamri, Just Wright tells the story of Leslie Wright (Queen Latifah), a thirty-five year old physical therapist who can’t seem to find a man interested enough to take her off the market. On top of her failing love life Leslie must also deal with her god sister and roommate Morgan (Paula Patton), who since birth has dreamed of being an NBA ballplayer’s wife. Despite their love for one another these two women these women have nothing in common. Leslie is funny. Morgan is flighty. Leslie is mature. Morgan is materialistic. In fact, the only thing these women have in common (no pun intended) is their love for NBA all star Scott McKnight (Common). After Leslie miraculously crosses paths with McKnight she’s invited to his birthday party where he meets and falls for Morgan. Sounds like a great story, huh? Well…not so much.

We’ve seen this movie before. A million times. We expected a new and fresh perspective on black love and what we ended up getting was your typical, run of the mill, conventional Hollywood RomCom. Now before you stamp the “Hater” label on us please understand, we REALLY wanted to love this movie. We were hoping it would be reminiscent of the golden age in Black Cinema when black centered films took traditional Hollywood flicks and put its own invaluable twist to it. No. Just Wright was instead a well meaning, formulaic tale that kept you wondering…will the real black filmmakers please stand up?

As avid, die hard, ride or die fans of Common it hurts to admit that his performance fell flat. While he’s usually a decent actor it seems as though his nervousness of having a starring role showed up on camera and Queen Latifah was left to carry not only her weight but her co-star’s. It seemed as though he never got into character and lacked the onscreen chemistry with Queen Latifah that is necessary for this kind of romantic comedy to be believable. Paula Patton was a ray of sunshine in the partly cloudy skies of Wright. She owned her character and her erratic, calculated seduction was believable and well done. Although her character was shallow and self-absorbed she made you like her and you almost forgive her calculated and manipulative ways. Only a good actress can pull that off.

As with every storm cloud there is a silver lining. It comes in the form of Phylicia Rashad who plays Scott’s mother, Elle. Her motherly, pristine face took us right down memory lane and her scenes with Common were some of the best. As usual Queen Latifah delivered an amazing performance. One thing you can count on: no matter the story or character Queen Latifah will always dazzle on screen because she connects with her characters enough to disappear into them. But even the Queen wasn’t able to make lemonade out of Just Wright’s predictable story.

The storyline was predictable, bland, uninspired, unimaginative, and despite good performances- the characters were one dimensional. As a result the movie dragged on and on down an expected path till the very end. The writer, Michael Elliot, expected way too much from the audience. How many NBA stars would make the decisions he made? Only the ones in movies.

Overall Just Wright unexpectedly fell flat in more ways than one. We agree that the film might have turned out better had Sanaa selected fresh and new unknowns to play the starring roles in this film. Not only would that have introduced new black talent into the slowly diminishing pool of young actors, but our expectations would not have been as high. And when we spend 12 dollars to see our favorite stars up on the big screen, the least we expect are believable and emotionally grabbing performances. This story has been cut and pasted to death. Sorry Common but your effortless beauty can’t squirm you out of this 2.5. We know bigger and better will come from you and we can’t wait to watch you grow as a valued artist. Until then…

The Chocolate Review gives Just Wright 2.5 out of 5 stars for the following reasons:

• Script left something to be desired
• Common’s lackluster performance
• Predictable storyline
• One dimensional characters