Monday February 2, 2015 was a PA day. There was a snow storm of some sort the night before, and so the day was kind of noisy with all the snow cleaning trucks passing back and forth. Nevertheless, my brother and I took a TTC bus to Scarborough Town Centre to watch a movie that taught us many valuable life lessons and also gave us the time to bond as brother and sister (Remember I won a $50 Movie Card from my Christmas Drawing Contest?). The movie we watched is called Black or White, directed by Mike Binder.

In the movie Black or White, Eliot Anderson’s (Kevin Costner) wife dies in a car crash and he realizes that he needs to raise his 7 year old granddaughter Eloise (Jillian Estell) all by himself. The father of Eloise, Reggie (Andre Holland) had his problems too. After the death of Eliot’s wife, the mother of Reggie, Rowena (Octavia Spencer), believes that she is better off taking care of Eloise. I don’t want to spoil it for you so I am going to stop right here and let you watch and see for yourself. Just a spoiler, be ready to see the struggles between these two families of two different background … White and Black.

I would like to tell you a little bit about the main actors and actresses and their personalities in the movie.

Kevin Costner plays the role of the grandfather who is struggling to raise his granddaughter after his wife and daughter died. With all the things that have happened to him, he starts to drink a lot more, resulting in a drinking problem.

Jillian Estell plays Eloise, a 7 year old girl who loves her grandpa and loved her grandma (the deceased one) too. She is torn between too different people who she cares for very much, her Grandpa Eliot and Grandma Rowena, and does not know who to live with.

Octavia Spencer plays the role Rowena, the mother of Reggie (Eloise’s father) and the grandmother of Eloise. She doesn’t think that Eloise is in a good environment with Eliot and she wants to have her granddaughter to herself. She and her big family think that Eliot doesn’t like black people but it is not true, he says he has nothing against blacks. He is just still mad after what Reggie did to his daughter.

Andre Holland plays Reggie, the father of Eloise. He claims to be clean of all the drugs he used and have ruined his life in the first place as well as several other charges. He is a troubled black stereotype but, unlike Eliot, Rowena still very much cares for him and believes he can change for the better.

There are a number of things I have learnt from watching this movie.

  • Never judge someone by the way they look. Only judge the character that is inside them. You may think that you know all about a person by just looking at them. It may be because of their clothes or how they talk.
  • Making silly, biased, racist, or stereotypical assumptions is not what we should do. Never judge a book by its cover.
  • Do not assume that someone dislikes you or, in this case, dislikes blacks. You have to know who they are and what they dislike. You don’t know what people like or dislike and just because someone is a different race doesn’t mean that they dislike your race.
  • Finally, IT IS OKAY NOT TO DO DRUGS. Drugs are bad and once you get into to them, it is hard to get out. They are addictive and can make your life a living hell.

My brother and I learnt another big lesson. The price of big popcorn bag that was $7.99 (while the price of the movie for each of us was $9.10). We decided not to buy the popcorn and save our money for the next cool movie. When we reached home, we popped up one packet and ate.

There are a lot of lessons from this movie. That fact that it touches relationships between black and white families, I think it is good for everyone to watch. There are a lot of lessons to both BLACKS and WHITES.

Angela-Acaye