The Great Debaters for Christmas

Forest Whitaker stood at the top of the stairs at “The Great Debaters” premiere at the Ziegfeld last week, fielding compliments on his new look. In a pin striped suit accentuating his new slimness, the Academy Award winning actor, for his role as last year’s screen monster, Idi Amin, could not have been sweeter, praising his co-star for “Last King of Scotland,” James McAvoy, for his performance in “Atonement.” With the award season approaching rapidly, the talk was less about who would get them, and more about which shows would air. As the crowd awaited director/star Denzel Washington, Fox 411's Roger Friedman offered to give the Oscar statues out on a Hollywood street corner. While we are dispensing kudos, prizes for best new comers should go to the young actors, the debaters of the film on hand:  Denzel Whitaker, Jermaine Williams, Jurnee Smollett, and Nate Parker. As good as these actors are at debating, they are great to look at. A fantasy sequence in which young Whitaker as James Farmer Jr. dances with Jurnee Smollett as Samantha Booke shows them breaking out of academic propriety, sort of Leo taking Kate below deck on the Titanic for some real moves. The debating theme allows for a lot of attention-worthy highbrow quotations:  “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Martin Luther King Jr.). “An unjust law is no law at all” (St. Augustine). Forest Whitaker in tweeds and spectacles as James Farmer Sr., the first African-American to receive a doctorate in Texas, deserves high praise as a model of good parenting. This is the best family movie of the season.

Regina Weinreich                            Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura