The premise of "Made in America" holds scintillating promise — a young woman who has been raised to be proud of her black heritage finds that the sperm bank donor who fathered her is white!
Ironically, the original script did not have this race-relations twist, but the idea is terrific, with all kinds of serious implications and comic possibilities.
Alas, this first-time screenplay by Holly Goldberg Sloan feels more like an outline, and director Richard Benjamin doesn't seem to know quite what to do with it.
Whoopi Goldberg stars as the single mother who runs an African-American bookstore and has instilled in her straight-A high school daughter (Nia Long) a sense of black pride. But one day, Long finds out her own blood type and concludes that since her mother and late father have conflicting blood types, her father must have been someone else. (Do 17-year-old kids really know their parents' blood types?)
Goldberg confesses that after her husband died, she went to a sperm bank and was artificially inseminated. This sends Long on a search for her father. She heads for the sperm bank and breaks into the computer records. (The setting also allows for the film's most tasteless sequence.)
Long is devastated to discover her father is Ted Danson, who is, of course, white. Worse, he's a drunken, womanizing jerk and the laughing stock of the community, thanks to the carnival-style TV ads he does for his auto dealership.
She immediately confronts Danson and later, Goldberg confronts him as well (in a very unfunny sequence where she gets drunk in his office). But Danson is touched by this brush with parenthood and begins to change his ways, and it isn't long before Long and Goldberg warm up to him.
The film's romantic angle arrives when Danson takes Goldberg to dinner and afterward he starts coming on to her. At first, this appears to be a setup for her putting him down. But instead, she falls for him, a most unlikely twist with no foundation whatsoever.
As if they realize this, Sloan and Benjamin make a mid-story switch from farce to near-tragedy, hoping to win over the audience. But this audience-member was merely put off by this slick, sentimental plot element.
There are lots of big, over-the-top comedy scenes here, as Danson wrestles a bear and rides an elephant, as well as a number of superfluous car chases. But the funniest moments come from two supporting players — Will Smith as Long's best friend and Jennifer Tilly as Danson's bimbo girlfriend — whose scenes seem to belong in some other film. There are also far too many idiotic music video segues.
Strangely, amid all of this chaos, the film's most effective moments come when Goldberg and Danson have their quiet, romantic scenes. They really do have some genuine screen chemistry and charm together.
Too bad the movie doesn't better serve them.
As for director Benjamin, he began in movies as an actor ("Catch-22," "Goodbye, Columbus," "The Sunshine Boys," "Love at First Bite"), making his directing debut with the wonderful "My Favorite Year." Unfortunately, most of his subsequent films ("Little Nikita," "My Stepmother Is an Alien," "Mermaids") have been disappointing. "Made in America" is in the same camp.
The film is rated PG-13 for a sex scene with nudity, as well as some profanity and vulgarity.