JUST WRIGHT
STARRING: Queen Latifah, Common, Paula Patton, Pam Grier, James Pickens Jr. and Phylicia Rashad
WRITTEN BY: Michael Elliot
DIRECTED BY: Sanaa Hamri
Rated: PG
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Release Date: 14 May 2010
Review Date: 25 May 2010
It's been refreshing seeing so many romantic comedies as of late, that were not only good, but clean as well. Leap Year, Letters to Juliet and now Just Wright, have all been very tasty films and were all rated PG.
The adorable Queen Latifah who is one of the few people in Hollywood you can tell has a good soul just by looking at her; stars as Leslie Wright. All of Leslie's life, she has been the `friend' to charming and available guys. No one has ever wanted to be more than that with her in the end, and to add insult to injury, guys tend to fall for her best friend Morgan (Paula Patton).
Morgan is indeed beautiful, but then so is Leslie, and only an idiot wouldn't be able to smell Morgan's BS from a mile away. But then again there are a lot of idiots in the world, so this makes it easier for those of us with two or more brain cells watching, to accept this in the film.
To call Morgan high maintenance would be the understatement of the century. At least she is honest with Leslie about her intentions however, which was one of two small problems I had with this great film.
The first being that I just can't buy that Leslie would after all these years be friends with someone so manipulative and deceitful. Morgan has made it her mission in life, to wed a cash flow. Whereas Leslie you see, is basically every bit as sweet as the real Queen Latifah.
After Morgan fills Leslie in on her plan to snag an NBA player as her ATM of a husband, Leslie just so happens to run into such a man at a gas station following a game. His name is Scott McKnight and he plays for the Nets; which coincidentally is the team that Leslie is nuts about.
Common plays Scott, and the enthrallment is there from the get-go between both the actors and the characters they portray and lasts all the way till the credits. Taken aback by Leslie's unique charm, Scott invites her to a party.
Naturally, Leslie brings Morgan along with her, and Scott finds her intriguing. Morgan plays Scott like a fiddle and soon enough they are dating. Being such a sweetheart, Leslie is happy for Morgan and allows this to go on when Morgan expresses that she is truly developing feelings for Scott.
Leslie is a physical therapist and when Scott gets injured on the court, he hires her to move in and take care of him. Based on the description of Morgan's character and the necessary formula of romantic comedies, you can guess where it goes from there.
And it does go there, but we really enjoy the ride it takes us on along the way. The film doesn't force the inevitable down our throats, but slowly and innovatively leads us to the romance of Scott and Leslie.
I mentioned earlier that there were only two small problems I had with the film. The second one takes place in the third act and involves a ridiculous decision made by Scott. It took my like for the character down a notch or two, but those are tiny notches and both of these problems I had were minuscule to the overall effect the film had.
I've had my eye on Paula Patton for quite some time now; ever since I saw her in Déjà vu. She has a rare quality to her and I think she will do big things in the world of movies. In the small handful of mainstream films she has done, you can see a vast variety of talent. She is enduring and the fact that she makes us absolutely hate her as Morgan in this film, shows how truly talented she is.
Director Sanaa Hamri has gone from Something New; to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2; to Just Wright; and each of them compliments her well. Insert offensively cheesy Just Wright one-liner here:
