Bringing Down the House

Queen Latifah, Eugene Levy and Joan Plowright. Dir by Adam Shankman. Peter Sanderson is a divorced, straight-laced, uptight attorney who still loves his ex-wife and can’t figure out what he did wrong to make her leave him. However, Peter’s trying to move on, and he’s smitten with a brainy, bombshell barrister he’s been chatting with online. However, when she comes to his house for their first face-to-face, she isn’t refined, isn’t Ivy League, and isn’t even a lawyer., Hilarious culture-clash comedy with the legendary Steve Martin. The life of a work-obsessed and uptight lawyer is turned upside down when he meets a female ex-convict., An uptight lawyer meets a new love interest online – but she hasn’t mentioned she’s in prison., An uptight attorney’s perfectly ordered life is completely turned upside down when he meets a prison escapee who wants him to help her clear her name., Divorced dad Peter is duped by jailbird Charlene into a blind date. She wants him to help her legal case, he just wants her out of his life. But she’s teaching him stuff he’s never seen before., A man looking for a woman just like himself ends up with someone quite different in this farcical comedy. Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) is a lawyer who is having trouble getting his life back on track after his wife, Kate (Jean Smart), divorces him; he’s also adjusting to his new status as a single father. Looking for companionship, Peter tries an internet dating site and virtually meets “lawyer-girl,” an attractive and single fellow attorney. Peter makes a date with her, but the woman who arrives at his door turns out to be Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah), who not only isn’t a lawyer, she turns out to be an escaped convict. Charlene is also a brash and brassy African-American, while Peter is perhaps the most tightly wound white guy in L.A. Charlene explains to Peter that she’s strung him along because she’s innocent of the crime for which she was convicted, and she needs a top-notch attorney to help prove her case. Peter isn’t the least bit interested at first, but Charlene isn’t the sort of woman to take “no” for an answer, and in time she wears him down and agrees to help. As Charlene moves into Peter’s home, she helps him to loosen up and unleash his inner groove, which quite surprises Kate, and her down-to-earth advice comes in handy for Peter’s son and daughter. But Charlene may end up going too far when Peter is asked to entertain Mrs. Arness (Joan Plowright), a wealthy woman looking for a new law firm. Bringing Down the House also features Eugene Levy as Howie, one of Peter’s friends who takes a keen interest in Charlene, and Betty White as one of Peter’s neighbors., The life of a work-obsessed and uptight lawyer is turned upside down when he meets a female ex-convict, who demands his help to clear her name. She gradually brings out the lawyer’s livelier side, which he must juggle with his responsibilities, including the wooing of a wealthy, conservative client., When a lonely guy meets a woman on the Internet who happens to be in prison, she breaks out to be with him, and proceeds to wreak havoc on his middle-class life., Steve Martin and Queen Latifah’s chemistry drive this odd-couple comedy. He plays a lonely lawyer, eager to meet a woman from an Internet chat room; she’s his e-mail buddy, a brassy convict who wants him to represent her in court. Hilarity ensues when she shows up on his doorstep and turns his family’s life upside down., A lawyer inadvertently woos a brassy convict via e-mail and is surprised when she shows up at his door.