(8/16/2002) I just recently watched this movie for the first time. It's the first C. Thomas Howell movie I enjoyed since "Side Out." I listened to all the negative remarks about this movie made by Spike Lee and other people, so I just never had the urge to watch it. But now that I've seen it myself, I'm glad I took the time, because I really enjoyed it. Sure, C. Thomas Howell doesn't come close to looking Afro-American... he barely even touches on warmed-over Puerto Rican. However, if you just accept it as a plot device, the movie works very well.

Kind of a comic reworking of "Black Like Me", "Soul Man" tells the story of Mark Watson, a young upper-class white guy who's kinda narrow-minded and smarmy. He and his friend (played with great comedic timing by Arye Gross) are both accepted to Harvard Law. Mark's father, under the influence of his progeny-hating psychiatrist, refuses to pay his tuition--opting instead to use Mark's college money to buy a condo in Barbados. So Mark is forced to find a way to pay his tuition on his own. Unable to get a loan from his bank, he tries to ferret out available scholarships. He comes across a scholarship program that would fit his needs perfectly. The only hitch? It's the Henry Brouchard scholarship program for qualified black students. So, with the help of some tanning pills and an Afro, Mark is on his way to Harvard Law School. The rest of the movie is about his experiences as a "black" man, and the lessons he learns to apply as a "white" one. He experiences racism and discrimination on the opposite side of the spectrum for the first time.

My own particular favorite scene is the dinner scene when Mark is invited over to dinner with a white family. Each member of the family sees him as a different stereotype... the young son sees him as a music star, the mother sees him as a "Mandingo"-type character, and the racist father (played nicely by Leslie Nielsen in one of his last non-comedic roles) sees him as a jive-talking pimp who's corrupted his daughter. A very efficient (and clever) way to get the point across.

The cast and crew did a nice job of using comedy to broach a very touchy subject. However, don't think it's a perfect satire or anything. The last 10 minutes or so are just a little too cookie-cutter Hollywood, and some parts of the script and finished movie seem poorly constructed. Also, C. Thomas Howell did a fairly good job for having had to lead the cast, but "Soul Man" probably would've been even better if Tim Robbins played Mark, as was the original intention.

Overall, an underrated movie that packages serious subject matter into alternately deft and puerile comedy, and that deserves more attention than it gets. ****

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Created May 05, 2009 at 11:47pm • Submit your own review...