MovieChat Forums > Black or White (2015) Discussion > Okay, so...

Okay, so...

posted 9 years ago by kathysantoniforthewin
15 replies | jump to latest

Judging from the preview, this little girl is raised from birth by her grandparents (mother's parents) and after her grandmother dies, her dad's family (his mother in particular) comes out of nowhere demanding that the grandfather that RAISED HER (and may as well be her father) share her in joint custody with her DRUG ADDICTED deadbeat biological father. Do I have this correct? I know trailers can be decieving, but if this is truly the case how selfish of the grandmother to try and rip the little girl from the only world she's ever know right after the woman who raised her died! I mean, by all means, tell her grandfather that you want to see her and be involved in her life, but to battle for custody when she's in a stable, loving, familiar home is just horribly, horribly selfish!

Can someone just please spoil this for me and tell me what the final verdict is? I apologize; I don't have the patience to sit through this movie and I don't go to the movies often so this wouldn't be my first choice by a long shot, but I am curious about the ending.

[–] blackalaureate 9 years ago

the dad and the grandfather both end up in an intoxicated "fight" by the poolside. the grandfather nearly drowns, and the dad has a change of heart and ends up saving the grandfather's life.

because of this, the black side of the family decides to drop the custody battle and the white man wins.

~~This is a game to you...but the second YOU feel threatened, suddenly its not a game anymore.~~

[–] kathysantoniforthewin 9 years ago

Thanks!

[–] bohunkchicklet 9 years ago

What was the great speech given at the end? Was it really emotional?

[–] semicharmed_life 9 years ago

Judging from the preview, this little girl is raised from birth by her grandparents (mother's parents) and after her grandmother dies, her dad's family (his mother in particular) comes out of nowhere demanding that the grandfather that RAISED HER (and may as well be her father) share her in joint custody with her DRUG ADDICTED deadbeat biological father. Do I have this correct? I know trailers can be decieving, but if this is truly the case how selfish of the grandmother to try and rip the little girl from the only world she's ever know right after the woman who raised her died! I mean, by all means, tell her grandfather that you want to see her and be involved in her life, but to battle for custody when she's in a stable, loving, familiar home is just horribly, horribly selfish!

Well, to answer your main question, the reason why the other grandmother wants to take the daughter, Eloise, into custody AFTER Elliot's wife died is because she believed that Elliot's wife (can't remember her name) was "like a mother to Eloise" and now that she was gone, she didn't feel it was a stable environment for Eloise to only be raised by an older man and that Eloise should be with her blood. Both sides of the family had their points, so ultimately I thought they would have agreed upon shared custody and was surprised that didn't happen.

[–] mc7791 9 years ago

so you cooked up a story and dropped the six of us in a meat grindah.

I really dont like Octavias character in this. She has blinders on to a degree in this film toward her son. We learn that the drug addicted son had several violent altercations with Costners character and thats ok. Also Costners character was in mourning and then Octavias character gives him no like no time to grieve and then starts with the custody deal. I did not like that. Plus they hammer home that Costners character is a drunk throughout the film. Also Mackies character never comes off his high horse against white people even after a compromise is made in the end.

[–] vampslayer33000 9 years ago

IMHO this scene was stupid and unnecessary. I liked Mike Binder's previous film with Kevin Cosnter, The Upside of Anger. But again that movie contained a stupid, unnecessary scene towards the end. The guy does not know how to end his movies at all.

[–] joekiddlouischama 9 years ago

But again that movie contained a stupid, unnecessary scene towards the end.

Which scene? The pool scene?

[–] vampslayer33000 7 years ago

The Upside of Anger contained a stupid, unnecessary scene about Joan Allen's husband just like the fight scene in this one.

[–] joekiddlouischama 9 years ago

and the white man wins.

But the writer and director, Mike Binder, seemed troubled by the apparent implications of the resolution, so he added a coda where "the white man" temporarily leaves his granddaughter with the black side of the family and chooses to go away for awhile (to alcohol rehabilitation, perhaps). Thus the film ends with a symbolic victory for "the black people" (as the Octavia Spencer character states at one point).

The writing in the film's later stages is a little desperate. At least the visual elements and the atmospheric staging are better than the writing.

[–] moviemasochism 9 years ago

this little girl is raised from birth by her grandparents (mother's parents) and after her grandmother dies, her dad's family (his mother in particular) comes out of nowhere demanding that the grandfather that RAISED HER (and may as well be her father) share her in joint custody with her DRUG ADDICTED deadbeat biological father. Do I have this correct?

Not exactly.

Eloise (the granddaughter) never knew either of her parents; her mother died and the father was a deadbeat who was absent. She was raised by the maternal grandparents (Elliot/Costner and his wife): all that is accurate.

However, there was never any conflict between Eloise's two grandmothers; actually, they were friends. It wasn't until Elliot's wife passed that Rowena (Spencer) fought to get Eloise because she thought it would be a better environment than being raised by Elliot who was lawyer who drank excessively. They try to convey early in the story that Elliot had not been the primary caregiver for Eloise while Elliot's wife was alive.

The biological father (Reggie/Holland) comes in when he tries to extort money from Elliot in exchange for handing Eloise over without a fight. Unsuccessful, Rowena's legal team (led by her brother Jeremiah/Mackie) out of desperation and to strengthen their case decide to replace Rowena with Reggie as the one seeking custody since it's easier for the biological parent to win than a grandparent. The intention wasn't to give custody to Reggie but to have Rowena raise Eloise in his place.

The movie isn't that great so yeah, don't see it. The previews would lead someone to believe what you thought the movie was about but what actually happens isn't much better.

[–] joekiddlouischama 9 years ago

The movie isn't that great so yeah, don't see it.

The film is far from great, but I would recommend seeing it. For all its structural problems, narrative convolutions, and sentiment, Black or White amounts to an honest conversation about race and the complexity of racial feelings. Contrary to what some people choose to imagine, we do not live under a false dichotomy where either you are a KKK/neo-Nazi or you are perfectly colorblind without a spot of bias or prejudice. There are many shades of gray in between, and phobias or racial wariness do not necessarily mean bigotry. In offering these points, the movie is important.

Now that I think about it, the film is kind of like Obama's speech on race in Philadelphia in March 2008, when he was running for the Democratic nomination. As he said, his white grandmother loved him dearly yet sometimes expressed fear when she saw a random black guy walking down the street.

The Kevin Costner character here is kind of like that, and Costner delivers a very impressive, honest performance.

[–] moviemasochism 9 years ago

I kind of get where you're coming from but Black or White didn't seem like that movie that is the "honest conversation about race" type movies. Or I should say, we can have an honest conversation about race any time and this movie really doesn't introduce anything remarkable or groundbreaking.

To cough up $15 and invest 2 hours to see Kevin Costner's 2-minute speech seems a little overboard. Anyone who's seen it can just cut-and-paste the gist of what he said here and then we can pretend to have an honest conversation about race posting the anecdotes and "statistics" that support and confirm what we already want to believe and ignoring everyone else. Maybe throw some name-calling and one-liners in there for good measure.

Black or White barely touches the surface of what the problem is although the movie is one of a thousand stories that involves a symptom of a problem. I mean honestly, we are still talking about people as a type based on the color of his or her skin and we don't bat an eyelash over how ridiculous that is. But then we'll look at Black or White and think because Elliot/Costner says that when he looks at a woman, the first thing he sees is her breasts and when he sees a man, the first thing he sees is skin color, but it doesn't matter because it's the next three things he thinks that's most important and we've had a conversation about race (and misogyny). Mission accomplished, I guess.

[–] mfivejude-1 9 years ago

the whole movie was a little "off : for me because kevin costners wife,the grandmother,looked young enough to be his daughter.much less th e mother of a deceased 17 yo

[–] clearthinkernow 8 years ago

That was the dead daughter you were seeing, not Costner's late wife.

[–] clearthinkernow 8 years ago

The paternal grandmother believes that the granddaughter will do better with a mother's influence. She was fine while the maternal grandmother was alive, as they'd worked out a friendship, and she knew the little girl was being taken care of properly. Things changed for her when the maternal grandmother died, which left no "mother" in the home. She also wants her son (the little girl's father) to step up and be the father and man he should be. She sees this as part of her job as his mother. So this is not a "horribly selfish" thing at all. She truly believes the girl will be better off with them, with her filling the "mother" role.