Critics reviews

Binder's outspoken script so appealed to Costner that the actor financed the film himself, and offers one of his richest and funniest performances.

This is a tiresome interracial custody dramedy in which white non-guilt righteously dukes it out with black melodrama. It's like Tyler Perry's Crash.

The good news is that Kevin Costner does some of the finest, most deeply felt work of his career as a widower lawyer fighting for custody of his biracial granddaughter in Mike Binder's "Black and White." The bad news is that this well-intentioned family drama never quite shakes free from its didactic, movie-of-the-week dramaturgy and a hand-holding approach to race-relations that's as if "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" had been made only five minutes ago.

Neither household is shown to be a total movie cliche, and the script intelligently navigates both domains to reveal how they have more in common than they may imagine, especially when it concerns the best interests of their granddaughter.