Wonderful character development!

What a beautiful movie!

Best movie of this year hands down!

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Kevin Costner stars in a film that presents thought-provoking themes on race particularly differences between Caucasians and African- Americans in the United States.The story presents a story of a grandfather who is unexpectedly left to care for her granddaughter when his wife suddenly died.He starts to face problems with it as he lacks experience in child care and growing alcoholism.The grandfather starts to face even more problems when the paternal grandmother seeks custody of the child with the help of his brother.With the best intentions for the granddaughter,both families battle in court which brings into the picture themes on race and cultural differences.While the film definitely provides entertaining with great acting from Costner and Octavia Spencer,too bad that the thought-provoking themes barely scratched the surface as they are being tackled in the film.It basically failed to explore the gray areas involved and took the tackled issues basically just like the film's title: either black or white.Also,the film explored too many themes that a central theme was somewhat forgotten.

After the death of his wife, Elliot Anderson (played by Kevin Costner), a former husband and father, becomes the guardian of his bi-racial granddaughter Eloise (played by Jillian Estell). Her mother died while giving birth, and her dad Reggie (played by Andre Holland) has distanced himself from her. Thus, Elliot is set with new responsibilities such as getting her ready for school for every morning, driving her school, picking her up, and making sure she gets her homework done. When Rowena (played by Octavia Spencer), her African- American grandmother from her dad's side sees distrust in Elliot being Eloise's legal guardian, a court battle for the custody of Eloise ensues between Elliot and her (Rowena), along with her family.This comedy-drama tackles major issues involving racism and dysfunctional relationships. When Rowena convinces Elliot that Eloise would be better living with her and her family, he rejects and Rowena comes under the suspicion that he has an issue with African- Americans. This soon becomes a key point in the plot. The problem Elliot has with her family is being the legal guardian of this little girl is that he doesn't see trust in them. Rowena's son Reggie, who is Eloise's father abandoned her (Eloise) when her mother died and he became a drug-addict and involved in crime. In the process, it ended up damaging his relationship with Eloise. There later comes a subplot where Reggie tries to reconnect with her. Then Rowena doesn't Elliot because he develops a drinking problem and he she doesn't believe he is capable of taking care of her on his own. Basically, the movie touches on many serious topics. The only problem is that when the plot tackles all these issues, it tends to get a little off-balance at times, then it becomes little less clear on what direction is the plot is going.Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer are really great in this. They both demonstrated some amazing performances. They both have their occasional funny scenes, as well as their dramatic scenes. The film has very some very touching moments here and there, especially towards the end. Overall, this is film does great as a feel-good comedy-drama and it is worth watching.

Thank you Kevin Costner for such a wonderful touching moving movie. A great Dad by Mr.Costner is a real fighter for his sweet little granddaughter, the only close person he has. Such a great performance by the wonderful actors, I couldn't help crying at some moments. Its terrible that the race problem is still occurred day by day but its really good that people (actors, writers whoever) care about it and try to fight the problem their way. And yes I would definitely recommend the movie to others because thats one of those touching movies one will never forget and will watch it again and again. 10 out 10. Thank u Kevin! Ure the greatest!

Black or WhiteThe upside to a white couple raising a black daughter is her not becoming obsessed with going to the tanning salon everyday.The cultural perks aside, this drama focuses more on the disadvantages of a mixed-race family.When his wife dies, Elliot (Kevin Costner) is left to raise his deceased daughter's half-white, half- black child Eloise (Jillian Estell).To help him through this transition, he employs a tutor for his granddaughter and alcohol for his grief.But when the mother (Octavia Spencer) of Eloise's real dad calls Elliot's effectiveness as a father into question due to his race, he must fight for custody in court.While there is validity to the concerns raised by the story, the over-sentimentality and weak performances undermine the importance of the subject matter.Besides, when a black family and white family can't decide on who will raise a child, it naturally defaults to an Asian family. Red Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca