This movie has issues.

Rating: 1/10 (21 February 2002)

to say that this movie deals with difficult issues is complete BS. the 5 minutes devoted in the plot to deal with sub-issues of teen pregnancy, divorce, and father daughter relationships hardly qualifies. honestly, the first several times i watched this movie, i turned it off an hour into it because it was so boring. i had to come back to it and watch it from the beginning several times before i could stop falling asleep. the only reason i actually watched it the whole way through is because i wanted to make an educated comment here. someone earlier said that it was a "sleeper". they were right... but i don't think they meant it the way i do.
the movie never actually "deals" with racisim or even "bi-racial" relationships... there is not enough substance in the acting or plot to even challenge the viewer for more than 2 minutes. (though i suppose that the audience that the author was trying to affect would only have a 2 minute attention span anyhow)
julia stiles disappointed me in this role. i know that it wasn't entirely her fault, and she only had so much that she was given to work with... so maybe her agent should be stripped naked, smeared in peanut butter, and duct taped to a tree in the middle of montana woods? this would certainly prove more interesting than the movie.
personally, all of my black friends are suburbanites... so i can't say much about the culture that the director was trying to capture... but to be honest, i was a little offended by the way that he applied a number of sterotypes recognized by me (a white male) as "negro". he really didn't paint the afro american culture in a very good light.
there are other movies that do a much better job deliberating over the black / white issue. i think that Finding Forester is one that at least challenges the viewer long enough to make them think about people of a different culture in a different way than is status quo.
this movie fails miserably to capture what i can only assume was the authors intent.
i'd give it 0 out of 10 (i thought the dancing was horrible) this movie is sure to make it to the bargain bin at the dollar store.
4 for $1.00!!! (right along side Annie, Killer Clowns from Outer Space, and about a thousand or so copies of THE STAND (sorry stephen))