Black or White

Kevin Costner gives everything hes got to the role of Elliot Anderson, a widowed Los Angeles lawyer with a penchant for the bottle and a shot of self-pity. Elliot finds what focus he can in his seven-year-old biracial granddaughter, Eloise (Jillian Estell). Elliot and his wife had been raising the girl since their daughter, only 17, died giving birth to Eloise.

Now Elliot is determined to go it alone that is, until Eloises long-absent, drug-troubled dad, Reggie (Andr Holland of The Knick), shows up. With Reggies mom, Rowena (the reliably superb Octavia Spencer), ready to back him up in a custody battle, the stage is set for family warfare. And no one is shy about playing the race card.

Writer-director Mike Binder, who worked beautifully with Costner on 2005s The Upside of Anger, finds himself on the downside of juggling stereotypes. The contrast between Elliots whitey affluence and the lively chaos of Rowenas black household is drawn in laughably broad strokes. Yet you can feel Binders commitment to the volatile material, best realized in a courtroom scene in which Elliot takes the stand to make a distinction between racism and race awareness.