In
Down to Earth, Lance Barton (played by Chris
Rock) is trying to make it as a comedian at the Apollo Club
in Harlem. but he just has not developed the knack. All of
a sudden, while distracted by a pretty woman, he is killed
by a passing truck, and soon he enters heaven, where beautiful
people are dancing at a night club. But Lance wants to go
back to earth to reach his ambition to become a stand-up comedian
and to romance the pretty girl, Suntee (played by Regina King).
Two New York-accented White dudes, dressed in con-men attire,
appear to be in charge, so he approaches them and begs to
return. Mr. King (played by Chazz Palminteri) explains that
he can be reincarnated into someone else’s body, so he and
his sidekick Mr. Keyes (played by Eugene Levy) take him to
see some possible bodies to inhabit. Lance turns down all
those he views, so they give him one last chance -- the White
body of Charles Wellington III. Lance agrees, but only on
a temporary basis -- until they can find a Black dude --,
and the deal is struck. However, Lance keeps his own African-American
personality, while the rest of the world will see the body
of the one whom he replaces. Meanwhile, Wellington’s wife
(played by Jennifer Coolidge) and her lover Sklar (played
by Greg Germann) have just plotted to kill Wellington, and
they are surprised when Wellington emerges alive after an
attempt to poison him. Soon, Suntee appears, protesting that
Wellington’s firm has just bought out the only public hospital
in Brooklyn with plans to turn the structure into a moneymaking
hotel. As Wellington, Lance makes a play for Suntee by promising
to keep the hospital running, with nobody turned away for
lack of insurance, but the board of directors of his firm
is incensed. He also increases the salaries of his servants
200 percent, buys out a comedy club so that he can practice
his material for the last amateur contest before the Apollo
Club closes, and Suntee falls for the new Wellington. The
two angels soon appear, telling Lance that his time as Wellington
is up, as they have found a Black body for him. But the rules
are that when he is reincarnated permanently, he will have
no memory of the life as either Lance Barton or Wellington.
Then an assassin, hired by the board of directors, puts a
fatal bullet in Wellington. Reincarnated, Lance soon wins
the Apollo Club competition, but not as Lance. As he walks
out of the auditorium, appearing to be lost, he is alongside
Suntee. Thus, his dream has finally come true, albeit in his
reincarnated life. The best part of the film is the humor,
not the story or the happy ending, but the humor is tailored
for African Americans and their friends in the big cities
of the United States; many comedy lines will sail over the
heads of suburban Whites. Although Blacks account for 25 percent
of all filmviewers, Down to Earth may not cross
over to white America in any substantial way despite the efforts
of codirectors Chris and Paul Weitz to retrofit the plots
of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and Heaven
Can Wait (1978). Meanwhile, there are many political
themes in the film -- how privatization of public hospitals
shortchanges the poor, why the indigent die because hospitals
insist on accepting only those covered by insurance, and the
way in which cabdrivers refuse to pick up African American
customers. Unfortunately, those most likely to see Down
to Earth will already know about these social ills.
The subtext of the film appears to say that the only hope
for poor Blacks in the United States is to be reincarnated
into White bodies, and, since that scenario is unrealistic,
the real message is that African Americans should be content
to escape into humor, the pursuit of dreamgirls, or, as the
film’s tagline ("A case of premature reincarnation") suggests,
engage in fantasy. Down to Earth, in short,
ratifies an unjust status quo, retrospectively justifying
Spike Lee’s fury in Bamboozled
(2000), and leads to a very disturbing question: Has Chris
Rock become the Steppin Fetchit of the 21st century? MH
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