Soul Man

A decidedly high-concept comedy, Soul Man follows C. Thomas Howell’s pampered Mark Watson as he concocts a scheme to land a coveted scholarship to Harvard by disguising himself as a black man – with complications ensuing after Mark finds himself experiencing racism and, eventually, falling for a black student named Sarah (Rae Dawn Chong). It’s ultimately rather intriguing to note that Soul Man never becomes quite as trashy or exploitative as one might’ve anticipated, as filmmaker Steve Miner, working from Carol Black’s script, delivers a good-natured comedy that fares surprisingly well in its opening hour – with the picture benefiting substantially from Miner’s lighthearted touch and a proliferation of affable, charming performances. (Howell’s personable turn as the central character undoubtedly goes a long way towards compensating for some of the missteps within Black’s erratic screenplay.) The movie’s watchable vibe persists right up until around the halfway mark, with Soul Man, beyond a certain point, adopting an egregiously conventional tone that’s compounded by less-than-subtle bits of social commentary – which ensures that the whole thing limps towards its almost incongruously happy ending (ie Mark doesn’t really face any consequences for his actions, either with his school or his black girlfriend). The final result is a time-capsule curiosity that is, for the most part, a slight degree better than its reviled reputation might’ve indicated, with the film’s failure, interestingly enough, a result of factors completely separate from its admittedly outrageous premise.

** out of ****