THE BEST MAN is a hip and sexy re-thinking of films like THE BIG CHILL and RETURN OF THE SEACAUCUS SEVEN, this time with an African American cast. The film centers on a group of college buddies who are reuniting for a wedding. Things get sticky when one of the group has written an about to be published novel, where the characters are just thinly disguised versions of his friends and how revelations in this book alter and shake the foundations of these relationships. Taye Diggs is attractive as Harper, the author of the book and the best man at the wedding; Morris Chestnut plays a professional football player and the groom; Nia Long is sexy and funny as Jordan, a TV journalist/Oprah wannabe who hopes to rekindle a romance with Harper at the wedding; Harold Perrineau plays a grade school teacher caught in a stranglehold of a relationship with an emasculating female (Melissa DeSousa); Terrence Howard steals every scene he is in as this group's voice of reality; Sanaa Lathan plays Harper's fiancée who can't get Harper to commit and Monica Calhoun is the bride who is at the center of the explosion caused by the book. There's nothing terribly original here, but the cast is charismatic and works very hard at making the material fresh and appealing. It's predictable, but still fun is to be had here.
Review of The Best Man
