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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer (WGA):
Jason Filardi (written by)
Release Date:
7 March 2003 (USA) more
Tagline:
Everything he needed to know about life, she learned in prison. more
Plot:
When a lonely guy meets a woman on the Internet who happens to be in prison, she breaks out to be with him, and proceeds to wreak havoc on his middle-class life. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
3 wins & 13 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(29 articles)
Exclusive: Oscar producer Adam Shankman talks about hosts Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin
(From EW.com - Hollywood Insider. 3 November 2009, 6:39 PM, PST)
Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin Team-Up to Host the 82nd Academy Awards
(From Collider.com. 3 November 2009, 4:35 PM, PST)
User Comments:
Light sketch comedy/drama more (234 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Steve Martin | ... | Peter Sanderson | |
| Queen Latifah | ... | Charlene Morton | |
| Eugene Levy | ... | Howie Rottman | |
| Joan Plowright | ... | Virginia Arness | |
| Jean Smart | ... | Kate Sanderson | |
| Kimberly J. Brown | ... | Sarah Sanderson | |
| Angus T. Jones | ... | Georgey Sanderson | |
| Missi Pyle | ... | Ashley | |
| Michael Rosenbaum | ... | Todd Gendler | |
| Betty White | ... | Mrs. Kline | |
| Steve Harris | ... | Widow | |
| Jim Haynie | ... | Ed Tobias | |
| Aengus James | ... | Mike | |
| Jernard Burks | ... | Widow's Bodyguard | |
| Bronzell Miller | ... | Widow's Bodyguard |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
In the Houze (USA) (working title)
JailBabes.com (USA) (working title)
more
MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for language, sexual humor and drug material.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
105 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS
Certification:
Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | UK:12 (video rating) | UK:12A (original rating) | South Korea:15 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Canada:PG | Finland:K-11 | Germany:6 | Netherlands:MG6 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:PT | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Zurich) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #39572)
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Jason Filardi's original screenplay was entitled "Jailbabe.com". He had Adam Sandler and Angelina Jolie in mind when he first wrote it. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: Near the end when the car pulls up to the house, there is a line of parking meters with a fire hydrant sitting right in between two of them with no extra space. more
Quotes:
Peter Sanderson:
Charlene, what is this particular taste? It's familiar, yet... what is it, some sort of an herb, like sage?
Charlene Morton:
Naw... it's more like a milk of mint.
Peter Sanderson:
Well, whatever it is, the taste is explosive!
Charlene Morton:
Well, good then! Enjoy!
more
Soundtrack:
I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Babe more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (234 total)
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Tax lawyer Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) has been falling for Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah) over the Internet. She's sent him a picture of herself, but she was just a tiny figure in the background, being led out of a courthouse in jail clothes and cuffs by two cops, while in the foreground, there was a young, thin, white yuppie-looking female lawyer talking to a reporter. Sanderson believes that Charlene is the yuppie and arranges a date. Of course he's surprised at Charlene's appearance (Latifah is black, "thick" and streetwise in the film) and the fact that she's a con who has done time. Charlene's motivation is to acquire affordable, quality legal services to clean up her record--she swears she's innocent.
Ostensibly a film that would comically explore the serious issue of racism (and other kinds of appearance preconceptions) between two very different communities, Bringing Down the House is more a series of loosely tied gags. It plays like a sketch film, with the theme/subtext as a unifying factor. At that, the gags or sketches are mostly successful, although the film is not quite funny enough to work as an outrageous comedy and not quite serious enough to work as a "message film", even though it may occasionally come close on both accounts.
The three members of the principle cast--Martin, Latifah and Eugene Levy--are good, with Levy being underused, but for me, some of the best material arrived with the supporting cast. Joan Plowright as the wealthy Mrs. Arness, Kimberly J. Brown as Peter's former sister-in-law Sarah, and Betty White as Mrs. Kline, Peter's neighbor all routinely stole the show when they appeared. They were given the most outrageous material, with Arness and Kline being particularly racist. White's character is similar in tone to her excellent supporting role in Lake Placid (1999), although she was underused here.
For some, it may be an asset that the film tries to veer away from becoming cartoonish. I think it would have benefited from moving further into absurdist territory--for my tastes, even though Martin has had many great films, he has never surpassed The Jerk (1979), but that's too much of a personal preference for me to really count it as a flaw. It's also interesting that scripter Jason Filardi tries to work in a mostly serious crime/drama subplot towards the climax, but it's a bit too little, too late, and is an odd change of tone, even though the comedy bits surrounding the subplot are good. On the serious side, other than the material about racism, the strongest aspect is that Charlene teaches Peter how to be a better parent and family man. A couple scenes on that end were actually moving.
Overall, Bringing Down the House is a bit of a mixed bag, but approached as a light "sketch comedy/drama", it is entertaining. My rating occasionally leaned towards a 7, but remained closer to a 7.5 or 8.