The Best Man (1999)

Genre

Comedy | Drama

Director

Malcolm D. Lee

Country

USA

Cast

Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Melissa De Sousa, Monica Calhoun, Regina Hall, Jim Moody, Jarrod Bunch, Victoria Dillard

Storyline

Harper (Taye Diggs) is an author whose first novel is soon to be published, just as he's been asked to the Best Man at the wedding of his friends Lance (Morris Chestnut) and Mia (Monica Calhoun). He is suffering a worse case of publication-day jitters than most authors, and with good reason: much of his book has been drawn from real life, and he's afraid that his friends and family will spot the sometimes unflattering literary versions of themselves.

Opinion

The only reason I ended up watching this film is because The Best Man Holiday - film I've been wanting to see for the past two years - is its sequel, and I thought it was the right thing to do. And I gotta say it, it was a surprise, one of the good ones.

Smooth, and with a well assembled cast, The Best Man is a two hour ride of pure enjoyment.

Malcolm D. Lee, Spike Lee's little cousin, made quite a debut and nailed both the direction and the writing.

The story is a little predictable - both in the conflict and in its resolution -, and a little sexist, if I may add, but the pacing makes it very pleasing to follow. It is a story of faith, honesty, love, lust and redemption, but unfortunately it fails to really address the issues of infidelity and dishonesty: the ending basically killed the film. I was expecting some kind of talk between the bride and the groom. It is unthinkable that he pretends like nothing happened. It's okay for him to forgive her, but I was hoping for some more depth.

The characters have very distinct personalities, yet their connections are quite believable. They all are interesting with their thing - Quentin being the most complex and funny one - , and I must applaud Malcolm D. Lee for writing black characters that are all successful, and independent.

Last but not least a wonderfully assembled all-black cast. Taye Diggs did a wonderful job as Harper, Morris Chestnut was excellent as the groom-to-be, gorgeous Nia Long did a great job as Jordan, and Terrence Howard steals every scene he's in with his charm. All the rest of the cast also did a good job.