Movie Review: The Best Man Holiday

I’m not kidding when I say I had no idea what I was in for when I sat down to view The Best Man Holiday. First, I didn’t know it was a sequel. And second, I’d never even heard of the first one – The Best Man (1999). But, you know what? Shame on me! Make no mistake; I’ll be curled up watching The Best Man Holiday’s predecessor on OnDemand come this weekend.

When you go see The Best Man Holiday, I recommend you bring tissues. Two boxes would be best. Bring a fan, too. Because, lady friends, it gets hot. There’s a lot of manly chest in this flick. (But, don’t worry, guys – there’s enough lingerie and football to go around.)

The movie opens with a series of flashbacks from The Best Man, surrounding the wedding of Mia and Lance (played by Monica Calhoun and Morris Chestnut), two of nine close college friends who we come to know throughout the rest of the movie, which takes place 14 years later. These flashbacks serve as a paper-thin layer of information regarding each character’s past that I armed myself with moving forward. Thankfully, writer/director Malcolm D. Lee continued to introduce the cast fairly fluidly, if not a bit too quickly. Not an easy task a decade and a half later.

Although the movie is being promoted as a romantic comedy – and it is, to the core, a comedy – the main element is really “love” in the sense of friendship. I didn’t get that cheesy romantic comedy let’s-just-throw-all-of-these-famous-people-in-a-movie-and-wrap-it-in-Christmas-paper taste in my mouth like we do with so many holiday ensemble flicks. Focused primarily on Harper (Taye Diggs), the film explores relationships between married couples, ex-lovers, and decades-long female-female, male-male, and female-male friendships.

Harper is a bestselling novelist whose newest book has fallen short of expectations. His agent, played by an ever-frivolous John Michael Higgins, suggests Harper try his hand at penning a biography – writing the life story of Lance Sullivan, a beloved NFL star and Harper’s ex-best-friend from college, who Harper believes will never agree to the deal. We next meet Harper’s wife Robyn, played by an ever-glowing Sanaa Lathan. Pregnant Robyn is unaware that the bills are piling up and that her husband has recently been unemployed. While writing Lance Sullivan’s story would put an end to their struggles with the bank, Harper isn’t ready to confront Robyn about their financial issues yet. Meanwhile, the Sullivans have invited the whole crew to stay with them over the holidays and enjoy a relaxing reunion. Everyone agrees, of course, at which point the old bouts of bitterness and jealousy begin to unearth from many angles.

Everyone has super-successful careers. Workaholic Jordan (Nia Long), an ex-fling and good friend of Harper’s, is a TV producer dating Brian (Eddie Cibrian), the one white character in the ensemble, who Harper is quick to playfully (and jealously) judge. Mia, Lance’s wife, is a mother of four running her luxurious household, in which nearly the entire movie takes place. Shelby, a Real Housewives reality star (Melissa De Sousa) is quickly introduced as the one single, raucous female in the bunch, and Quentin, played by a pot-smoking, joke-cracking Terrence Howard, is the token sensitive bachelor. Meanwhile, Julian (Harold Perrineau) and his wife Candace (Regina Hall), who run a private school together, round out the group.

Truthfully, the movie is as heartwarming as all get-out, but I do feel that I missed a lot not having seen the first one (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). Additionally, there were a few scenes, particularly between the male actors, that started to get a bit trite – at which point the gents themselves immediately began poking fun at the situation. It was refreshing and not sappy for the sake of being sappy – or if it was, I guess it worked.

A movie that follows ten adults and their families stuck in a house (correction: sprawling country estate) together during the holidays may sound a bit like Cabin in the Woods meets The Santa Clause, but it wasn’t. Most of the dialogue felt genuine, if not rehearsed. It was paced well (so well, in fact, that the guy next to me muttered “Spit it out, man!” at one point). Some playful ad-libbed scenes may have been key. There were some pretty raw moments, too. A major cat fight. Dangerous secrets. Tons of f-bombs. Oral sex talk (a lot of it). And the real pain of resentment, which, as it turns out, didn’t go away after college. Morris Chestnut takes over in one hotheaded scene in which he seems so legitimately angry that I couldn’t even bring myself to look at him on the screen. Oh, and this: The guys steal the show by doing an entire choreographed boy band number. Yep. That’s right. It happened. And it was awesome.

There’s some religion, quite a bit of football, and a few melodic scenes with kids who sing like angels. It’s like we’re allowed to look into the lives of someone we only peripherally know, but just a little bit deeper. As the film shifts its focus from charm to drama, it begs the question as to whether we’re open to love – whether some of the characters ever were and will be again. But then again, director Lee has the ability to catapult a viewer into giggle fits several times after somber tears have started rolling down cheeks.

Frankly, it was nice to see the dramatic friendship of two grown men, Lance and Harper, unfold on the big screen in place of a venomous friendship between two women. Really, the men were the stars of the show. The cast was just fun to watch. Everyone is simply stunning, too (though it was strange how such close friends wore black tie evening wear – as beautiful as some of the pieces were; I tip my hat to the costume designer – nightly to dine in one of their homes).

Sure, The Best Man Holiday could have been shorter, and some bits should have probably been cut, but I honestly wasn’t bored. A couple of scenes were pretty hokey (a smart phone mix-up, for example), but I’d say things could have gone a lot worse with a sequel 14 years in the making.