When we all could agree Nick Cannon was Great: A review of “Love Don’t Cost a Thing”
It’s probably important to say that I started thinking of this review well before Nick Cannon got himself into the boiling hot water he’s currently in. I was stuck at home and going through my DVD collection and saw this gem, and decided it was too good not to talk about here. Then Nick had to go and make things complicated...again. So this review isn’t some stealth support for Nick or some slick condemnation, just my true unadulterated love for “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” (LDCT) a movie that guided me through the 2000’s. Now onto the review.
“Love Don’t Cost a Thing” is my favorite high school movie. Thought it’d be good to let you know where I stand right off the bat. My impartiality partly comes from it dropping at the exact right moment as I was coming of age in the 2000’s and watching movies I had no business seeing. I mean just listen to this synopsis on the back of the DVD case and tell me this isn’t peak 2000’s:
“Academically, Alvin is off the charts. Socially, he’s a big fat zero. But Alvin has a plan to go from geek to elite, from shy boy to fly boy, from misfit to mack daddy. Wannabe playa Alvin is making his play. Nick Cannon portrays Alvin, who offers to fix the damaged car of popular, babelicious Paris (Christina Milian) if she’ll pose as his girlfriend. But popularity has a price. Is he too bling-bling to see that Paris is falling for the old Alvin? What Alvin really wants is there for him. And it don’t cost a thing.”
On top of it climbing to the precipice of the 2000’s bling era, this is undoubtedly one of the few high school movies with Black leads. There are plenty of high school movies that feature supposed high school aged Black characters, but movies about black people navigating the awful and complicated landscape that is secondary education seem to be rare. In BET’s Top 10 Black high school movies, LDCT doesn’t even make it into the listing, they have “Lean on Me” as number one. I mean, forreal? This is a list that includes Rick Famuyiwa’s classic “Dope” but doesn’t include his 1999 masterpiece “The Wood”. But, terrible list aside I am submitting this film to the library of Black Cinema Cult Classics (or BC3s as I call them). It hits all the marks: reviewed poorly by the mostly white film critics, was #4 at its opening box office, and seems to be missing from our current conversation around 2000’s nostalgia.
First, lets talk about Christina Milian who is just beaming with charisma and star power. Despite the characters in the movie obsessing over how gorgeous she is, I think the film does a good job of not objectifying her completely. And for my money, this is Nick Cannon’s best work. His performance is not as guarded as he is in “Drumline” but he doesn’t condescend when playing the nerd. The magic really happens when Nick and Christina are on screen together, whether they’re shooting flirty stares at one another or in the middle of an argument these two are just electric. I’m very surprised they didn’t star in like 5 movies together after this. Nick really had back-to-back wins during this time, he gets his first starring vehicle in “Drumline” this LDCT drops in 2003. He only needed one more movie I think, and he would have been one of the Kings of the 2000’s, he would have a trilogy of instant classics, but alas, his next starring role wouldn’t come until 2005’s “Underclassman”, which is just not good.
We can’t forget the unsung heroes of this movie; Ashley Monique Clark, Keenan Thompson, and Steve Harvey. These three bring the funniest parts of the movie; Ashley as the little sister is the right mix of annoying, nosey, and lowkey right about everything, Keenan adds just the right dose of over the top humor and Steve brings the black dad-isms in all the right places. I think this is Steve Harvey’s only role where he really gets to play up his comedic talent but also his dramatic. The final scene between Steve and Nick on the bed, when all feels like its lost, he’s not cool, he can’t be a nerd, and his dad comes in to save the day, is just magical. The direction is simple, the performances are sincere, and the score comes in so subtly it doesn’t hammer home the message “BE YOURSELF” but gives you a small tap in the right direction.
The film is a remake of a 1987 movie starring Patrick Dempsey called “Can't Buy Me Love” which apparently had a much more cynical tone and takeaway. The main thing separating this movie from its predecessor is the fact that it was co-written and directed by a Black woman, Troy Beyer (like her many talented black directing peers hasn’t gone on to direct another major film at this scale since). I think there’s something about the tenderness and humanity she brings that pushes this beyond just being some saccharine overly long sitcom movie. There’s a moment when Paris says “Popularity is work” and I think this movie showed that popularity is work but so is being lame and a nerd. It takes work to maintain relationships no matter the imagined social strata they exists on. Knowing the brands and cool places to hangout seems like just as much work as knowing about Yu-Gi-Oh cards and anime.
This film isn’t breaking any formal boundaries but man is it doing everything just right. I have to shout out the costume designers Jennifer Mallini and Christine Peters, everyone’s outfit says everything you need to know about them. Special shout-out to whoever put together Christina’s first all-white pool outfit.
Now, with my adult eyes there are some issues I noticed, like the pacing towards the end feels a bit off, and when you watch the deleted scenes there’s definitely some areas where I felt like we could’ve used some more breathing room. But that’s about all I can do when it comes to criticism, this is as close to perfect when it comes to teen movies. Well, I guess the Mom’s wig is pretty bad, but I’ll chalk that up to the industry. And the bully on the basketball team clearly had anger issues, and was very much a 47 year old man. Also did we talk about the soundtrack! The Soundtrack! Bring back Murphy Lee, bring back the double XL shirts, bring back the braids and Sean John headbands, and even though its already back, bring back the king of 2000’s footwear the all white Air Force Ones. I beg that you listen to the main song for the movie "Luv Me Baby"-by Murphy Lee featuring Jazze Pha and Sleepy Brown.
Even after all these thoughts, I’m still not entirely sure why I love this movie so much. Maybe its because I have vivid memories of practicing Soulja Boy dances with my cousin when YouTube was in its infancy, or maybe its because I grew up with a work-all-the-time dad that was cooler than me and listened to Al Green non-stop. But you cannot tell me this movie isn’t good. If you have not seen it, I implore you, watch this movie. It will not disappoint.
…
eric
P.S. To all the new subscribers’ thanks for making it to the end, this is way longer than my reviews will normally be. You can find other reviews on the site, along with my photography.
