{"id":28188,"date":"2013-11-18T10:01:04","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T15:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=28188"},"modified":"2013-11-18T10:01:04","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T15:01:04","slug":"the-best-man-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2013\/11\/the-best-man-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Best Man Holiday\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n

Previously, in 1999\u2019s \u201cThe Best Man\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Harper Stewart (Taye Diggs) got engaged to his girlfriend Robyn (Sanaa Lathan) at the wedding of their friends Lance (Morris Chestnut) and Mia (Monica Calhoun). The happy ending came despite Harper\u2019s temptation to have an affair with old friend Jordan (Nia Long) and Lance discovering that Harper had an affair with Mia years earlier (he forgave them both and got married with Harper as his best man). Elsewhere in the wedding party, Julian (Harold Perrineau) fell instantly in love with dancer Candace (Regina Hall) and broke up with his annoying girlfriend Shelby (Melissa De Sousa), who at the wedding hooked up with Quentin (Terrence Howard), the swinging bachelor of the group. \u201cThe Best Man Holiday\u201d opens with a montage to try and get you caught up, but the clips make little sense if you\u2019re coming in without a frame of reference.<\/p>\n

The new film sees all the old friends gathering together for a weekend-long Christmas celebration at Lance and Mia\u2019s. Harper wants to be happy that his wife Robyn is pregnant, but is distracted because his writing career is in a rut and he\u2019s having financial trouble. He can get things back on track if he writes a biography of football superstar Lance, but is afraid to ask him for any favors because there are still some hard feelings over the affair with Mia. Julian just lost a $2 million grant for his school because of a past indiscretion by his wife Candace that puts both the school and his marriage in jeopardy. Jordan is in a happy relationship with a co-worker, but they have a fight early in the weekend that threatens to dampen the holiday spirit. Shelby has since become a star of trashy reality TV and looks to spend the weekend spreading drama, especially involving her ex-boyfriend Julian and now-wife Candace. Quentin is still enjoying the bachelor lifestyle. Lance and Mia seem to be the most content, happy and open, which in a film like this means that they must be hiding scariest secret of all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The story bounces around a lot, so I\u2019ll just share some loosely-connected observations. Harper is a strikingly unlikable main character; he\u2019s deceitful as ever and now he hurts his family with his pride by refusing to take gifts like much-needed money (somewhat understandable) and used baby furniture (no good reason). Jordan is barely involved in the story, which is surprising considering how much she factored into the first one. It\u2019s actually a smart idea to say that Shelby is a trashy TV star, because the only way to explain her grating mannerisms (which I attribute to De Sousa\u2019s acting and not the script) is to say that she\u2019s been conditioned to speak in sound bites and antagonize people for the sake of ratings. She used to do these things for no reason. On a more serious note, I think Lance\u2019s Christian beliefs are integrated into the story much better this time as opposed to the first film, where they were wedged in as a way of forcing him to consider forgiveness.<\/p>\n

Beware, \u201cThe Best Man Holiday\u201d is far from the cuddly romantic comedy it\u2019s been marketed to be. I knew there\u2019d be some conflict, but I wasn\u2019t prepared for the constant hostility, sexually explicit arguing (in front of children no less), and the film\u2019s darkest plot point. It\u2019s handled touchingly, but it\u2019s incredibly saddening. I do think the film is better than the bland original, though that isn\u2019t saying much. It\u2019s curious that this film was made at all, as the original made only $34 million 14 years ago. I didn\u2019t know people were clamoring for it, but judging by the $30 million it made this past weekend, I guess they were. It\u2019s a gamble that is paying off a bit creatively and a lot commercially.<\/p>\n

Two Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Best Man Holiday\u201d is rated R for language, sexual content and brief nudity. Its running time is 123 minutes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver Previously, in 1999\u2019s \u201cThe Best Man\u201d\u2026 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Harper Stewart (Taye Diggs) got engaged to his girlfriend Robyn (Sanaa Lathan) at the wedding of their friends Lance (Morris… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}