Common and Queen Latifah Have the Right Connection in 'Just Wright'

I had no intention of seeing "Just Wright." I've seen more than enough boy-chase-girl, boy-gets-girl, boy-dogs-girl films to last a lifetime, and even though I'm a huge fan of Queen Latifah's and Common's music, the movie still didn't interest me. However, I watched Common flirting up a storm on "The Mo'Nique Show" with Queen Latifah and thought to myself, "I hope he warned Serena beforehand because these two are doing a great acting job. Do they know the film is over?" Then, when I found out my favorite TV mom Phylicia Rashad (aka Claire Huxtable from "The Cosby Show") was in the movie, I did a 180 and headed to the nearest movie theater.

Leslie Wright (played by Queen Latifah, real name Dana Elaine Owens) is a physical therapist who is constantly forced into the homegirl category when she goes on dates. She's more likely to get some dap rather than a kiss, and she's grown used to it even when her dates are full of chemistry. However, her basketball groupie friend Morgan Alexander (played by Paula Patton) has always had a way with the men. But Morgan is just trying to be a basketball wife whether she's in love or not. When Leslie, a sports fanatic, runs into basketball star Scott McKnight (played by Common, real name Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.) at a gas station, she lucks out with a birthday party invite. And Morgan is right there to find herself a husband.

Scott falls for Morgan. Leslie is secretly interested in Scott. Now whatever you're guessing happens after that is probably correct. This movie wasn't exactly a mystery, and there were some other good and bad parts.

Paula Patton was my biggest con. I think she's gorgeous and she played the hell out of her role in "Precious" so I know she's talented. But she was about as convincing playing a golddigging, manipulative character as Ellen DeGeneres would be playing the role of a gay basher or Robert DeNiro playing a drag queen. I just didn't buy it. I tried to give it a shot, but even when she was saying something evil, I was waiting for her to pinch somebody's cheeks.

The movie also started off really slow, and I found it odd that Scott McKnight, star basketball player, would be all by himself in his tricked-out car pumping gas like nobody else could do that for him. I know there are some athletes who don't get wrapped up in the Hollywood scene but going to a random gas station without knowing where the pump is? Not likely.

Now once I got past the film's predictable outcome and focused on the actors, that's when the film picked up for me. The constantly played preview of Scott having ice thrown on him by Leslie was when the movie got interesting. I grinned wide every single time Phylicia Rashad was on screen, and she started to show up more once the injury happened. As usual, she was great in her role as Scott's mother and gave the film some veteran appeal, along with Pam "Foxy Brown" Grier.

But Common and Queen Latifah weren't short stopping on their roles either. Common said on "Lopez Tonight" and "The Mo'Nique Show" that he felt like he was a real NBA player. I don't follow sports and didn't know who half the athletes were who made guest appearances in this film, outside of Dwyane Wade, but I know a person who has game when I see one, and Common held his own.

It was great to see him hoop, but it was three times as nice to watch his acting. I've seen and talked to Common in person, and he is incredibly handsome. He doesn't act like he knows he is though, which makes him all the more good looking. But there are a lot of handsome guys who may not be great actors, and I don't support a film solely on eye candy. That's what calendars and photo slideshows are for. However, that wasn't the case with Common.

He's one of those physical actors that I rarely see onscreen these days. Before he lets anything come out of his mouth, he's already set the mood with his eyes. I found myself staring at the screen watching him look at the other actors. We knew when he was disappointed, angry, hopeless, in love, filled with lust, entertained and happy all by the glint in his eyes. Even if the movie was on mute, I'd have still known. There are very few rapper actors that I think act as well as they rhyme, but Common is one of them. Queen Latifah is undoubtedly another. I don't think there could've been a better person to be the leading lady and look believable as the round-the-way girl and sports fan the way she did. They were a perfect team.

Although that was good enough, what made this film come out of the usual romantic drama script was the jazz. I am "The Accidental Jazz Fan" and think Queen Latifah has a beautiful singing voice. So when Common played the piano and chose songs by artists like John Coltrane or Queen sang beside him to another song, I could've watched that for the entire film. I hope the bonus scenes show more of this when the DVD releases because it was fun to watch. The whole piano scene made me cover my mouth before I squealed aloud.

I also enjoyed the father-daughter bond with Leslie and Lloyd Wright (played by James Pickens Jr.). We don't see this too much from films with major African-American characters, and it's always nice to see strong father figures in films. Plus, his creative ways to mess up handiwork reminded me of my own father.

So with these pros and cons, what'd I think of the film? I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars mainly because the latter half of the movie was really good and for the chemistry the two main stars had together.