Retro Film Review: Barbershop (2002)

5 months ago

(source:tmdb.org)

When the author of this review was growing up, people in his country used to risk being thrown to jail or losing their jobs for telling certain kinds of jokes. Nowadays, some noted civil rights leaders in presumably enlightened Western democracies think that people should be severely punished for telling certain kinds of jokes. At least this is the impression given by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and their attempts to censor Barbershop, 2002 comedy directed by Tim Story. Sharpton and Jackson were furious over certain historical personalities and events being portrayed in less than saintly light and threatened MGM with boycott. Thankfully, MGM refused to budge and the controversy only brought extra attention to film.

The plot deals with one day in lives of people employed in barbershop situated in black Chicago neighbourhood. Calvin Palmer (played by Ice Cube) had inherited the shop from his father and ran the business with little enthusiasm, preferring get-rich-quick schemes and dreams of owning recording studio. As a result, he is unable to pay property taxes so, in order to escape foreclosure, agrees to sell the barbershop to Lester (played by Keith David), local loanshark, for 20,000 US$. As day goes by, Calvin changes his mind, gradually realising that his shop, staffed by people of both genders and mixed races, represents more than a place where people come for a haircut - it is a local institution, where locals gather to talk about politics, local problems and thus achieve sense of community. Calvin decides to pay Lester back and re-take shop, but Lester now demands 40,000 US$ to sell the shop back. While Calvin struggles to find the money, two inept criminals - JD (played by Anthony Anderson) and Billy (played by Lahmard J. Tate) - struggle with the seemingly unbreakable ATM machine they have stolen from the local convenience store.

Barbershop has all the populist ingredients of modern Hollywood comedy - uplifting message about superiority of family/community values over corporate greed; protagonist who experiences epiphany; obligatory happy ending in the form of deus ex machina - but it looks different. The reason could be found in the very good script by Mark Brown, Don D. Scott and Marshall Todd; the plot is very loose connection of vignettes that describe various characters and, for the most part of the film, the humour is of the more cerebral variety. The script also avoids all sorts of cliches, including those created by so-called "black" comedies of recent years - but it is also quite aware of the realities within black communities of modern USA. On the other hand, whole concept of barbershop staff representing various strata of the society - ranging from college students, repeated felons to "wiggas" (white men who adopted "black" culture, in this film represented by Troy Garity) - looks like an attempt to make the film as "politically correct" as possible. But this actually benefits the film, creating nice opportunities for endless and very entertaining banter. It is also a great opportunity for various people to display their comic talents, especially Cedric the Entertainer in a great role of barbershop's sage (and some of the lines that had sparked the controversy in the real life). Unfortunately, the quality of humour and dialogue drastically increases with the introduction of ATM subplot, which looks like it had been artificially inserted from another film. However, Tim Story manages to connect the dots at the finale of the film, leaving the audience entertained and thankful that they live in societies that allow jokes to be part of free speech.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 16th 2002)