Just Wright Released 17 September 2010 Director Sanaa Hamri Starring Queen Latifah, Common, Paula Patton, Mehcad Brooks, Phylicia Rashad, Pam Grier Writer Michael Elliot Producer(s) Debra Martin Chase, Shakim Compere, Queen Latifah Origin United States Running Time 101 minutes Genre Romantic comedy Rating PG

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Not fit for a Queen!

So, what of the state of African-American cinema? When Spike Lee burst on the scene in the '80s he spoke of a future where "black film-makers would make black films for black audiences". The theory went that this self-sufficiency would lead to film-makers having great power to make films that truly reflected the ‘black experience’ in America.

Well Lee’s prophecy has come true to a certain extent. There is a sustainable African-American audience for films, but unfortunately most of the films seem to be fairly lousy comedies. Tyler Perry is a virtual nobody this side of the Atlantic but he’s a superstar to black audiences, so much so that he actually sticks his name on his ropey films such as Tyler Perry’s Why Did I get Married Too?  Ice Cube, the hardcore rapper who was so good in Boyz n the Hood, is now best known for awful comedies like Barbershop and Are We There Yet? And indeed Spike Lee has made some very dodgy comedies himself like She Hate Me and Bamboozled. It seems a shame that now that African Americans can make their own movies, they seem content to produce such poor fare.

Like Ice Cube, Queen Latifah is a rapper who has found greater fame as an actress. She was Oscar nominated for Chicago and also did some good work in Bringing Out the Dead and Stranger than Fiction. However the only films she gets lead roles in are comedies like Beauty Shop and Last Holiday. Just Wright is no departure from this type of material.

She plays Leslie Wright, a physical therapist and a fanatical fan of the New Jersey Nets basketball team. Leslie had a chance meeting with their star player Scott McKnight (Common) and gets an invite to his birthday party. Her beautiful but manipulative god-sister Morgan (Paula Patton) has set her sights on becoming a basketball trophy wife and so she uses the party to ensnare Scott. Used to losing out to Morgan, Leslie accepts the situation with good grace but then Scott gets injured and Leslie is asked to become his personal therapist to help speed his recovery.

If you think you can guess where the plot is going, well you’re probably right. This is a formulaic chick movie that tells us that beauty is skin deep, despite several ogling shots of the gorgeous Patton (perhaps the male cinematographer wasn’t quite on message?). In fairness to her, Patton is quite good in a somewhat self-mocking role but playing the romantic lead, Common shows how limited his range is. In the big emotional scenes he seems to be reading his lines off a cue card. That said, his role is pretty poorly written, coming across as a female fantasy of what a top sportsman should be like. He’s an old school gentleman who listens to his Momma and he likes jazz, so that means he’s deep and sensitive okay?

Veterans Pam Grier and Phylicia Rashad are pretty much wasted in peripheral ‘Mom’ roles so it’s up to Latifah herself to carry the movie and to her credit she just about keeps you interested. In truth there isn’t much in the way of laughs to be had and the sports section of the movie is almost entirely without drama. Things unfold in an entirely predictable but fairly harmless manner.

The standard of romcoms is so bad these days that if you emerge from the cinema not wanting to go on a killing rampage with a machine gun then one can be considered a relative success. It’s pretty inoffensive stuff, but you can’t help feeling that Latifah could and should be doing better work than this.

However a look at the credits reveals that Latifah is one of the film’s producers so perhaps she’s accepted her lot in life.

- Jim O’Connor