Peter Sanderson is a divorced attorney who still loves his ex-wife and can't figure out what he did wrong to make her leave. Peter's trying to move on, and he's smitten with barrister he's been chatting to online. When she comes to his house for their first date, she isn't a lawyer. Instead, it's Charlene, a prison escapee who's proclaiming her innocence and wants Peter to help her clear her name. But Peter wants nothing to do with her, prompting Charlene to turn Peter's perfectly ordered life upside down, jeopardising his efforts to get back with his wife and win a very prolific client.....What could have been just another formulaic comedy about two people who couldn't be more opposite if they tried, is lifted from the mundane thanks to the wonderful performances from Martin, Latifah, and a scene stealing Levy, as the straight laced jive talking wannabe boyfriend.Martin has done this role a dozen times before, and here, he goes for the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it approach', and for a film like this, it's perfectly fine.It's always fun to see the atypical middle class American man become an almost nervous wreck because someone has disrupted his perfect life.And here, Latifah is that someone, and instead of making her the stereotypical loud mouth from the 'hood', the writers have rightfully made her character three dimensional, and very likable to boot.The comedy here sometimes verges on the offensive, for example, Betty Whites character is totally unnecessary as the casual racist, but obviously, the writers wanted her to be more of an ignoramus, rather than how she is depicted, and it just doesn't sit well.Plowright pops up as the potential client, and again, although she is very good, the scene when they are having dinner, stinks of casual racism.I know it's not the writers intentions to make this film quite uncomfortable at times, but the film can laugh at itself on occasion, and the chemistry between the two leads is wonderful.If your a Martin fan, this is a must, he recaptures the magic he had in the eighties, and this could be the last good thing he ever did.

Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) is a straight forward tax attorney who still loves his ex-wife Kate (Jean Smart) even though she has a new boytoy in her life. He disappoints his kids once again while courting heiress Virginia Arness (Joan Plowright) as a client. He has an on-line friendship with LawyerGirl but her photo is misleading. Instead of a slim blonde lawyer, she's actually prison escapee Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah) who insists on her innocence. She hounds him until he's willing to help her clear her name. His work friend Howie Rottman (Eugene Levy) helps out and he is infatuated with the streetwise Charlene. Kate's sister Ashley (Missi Pyle) and Peter's neighbor Mrs. Kline (Betty White) suspect something's wrong with the supposed nanny.This is a workable concept of an uptight white guy trying to deal with a black urban woman. It's a broad odd-couple PG-comedy from the 80s. It's not inappropriate enough to be funny. It's not sharp enough to be edgy. It doesn't handle race with enough deft. Steve Martin is playing this slightly dated. The whole thing feels dated. I like Queen Latifah's earthiness. Their chemistry is almost there. This is a small miss. At least, Eugene Levy gets a few inappropriate laughs and Missi Pyle gets into a ridiculous fight with the Queen.

What happened to Steve Martin? He is a comic genius with more all-time classic movies on his resume than virtually anyone else could hope for. "All of Me," "The Jerk," "Roxanne"--the man has done a lot of great work across a wide range of comedic styles. And Queen Latifah is talented and likable. Witness the sadly-ignored "Set it Off," which is a much better movie than you might expect, and which really showed that Queen Latifah had great potential as an actress. Martin and Latifah deserved a chance to do a good movie together. They could have pulled off a decent movie from a mediocre script. But instead, this is the movie you get when you take Steve Martin's lawyer character from "All of Me," suck all of the character and life out of him, and plug him into "Housesitter" with Queen Latifah as Goldie Hawn. There's even a rich old client, like in "All of Me." You get the feeling you've seen better versions of this movie before, and you're right. We all know the gag from the commercials. Steve Martin thinks he's meeting some thin white lawyer for an internet date, but instead Queen Latifah shows up at his front door. Comedy theoretically ensues. But the movie takes its sweet time getting to this first surprise, even though we the audience know it's coming. And in that interval, man, do they lay on the exposition. Layer after layer of trite TV-movie exposition, written in such a way as to show you the path the movie is going to follow as to every single character. Even after Queen Latifah shows up, the exposition just keeps on coming, and coming, and coming. When it stops, you are hoping comedy might ensue, but it just doesn't. In the first 30 minutes of this movie, there are a few amusing moments, and two occasions where you might actually chuckle out loud. That is a pathetic laugh ratio for any comedy, and it is unforgivable given that a truly awful script has dragged two great performers to that level. You know the comedies where you see the preview on TV and there are 3 or 4 funny clips, and you get to the movie, and those are the only 3 or 4 funny things in it? This is one of those comedies.

I saw this movie when I bought it at a garage sale. I thought that the film was good, but it could have been better. We see these kind of films in Hollywood all the time where the black people are better than the white people. They are racist, but these films get a little tiring after a while. This time, Steve Martin plays Peter Sanderson and Queen Latifah plays Charlene. Charlie is a convict and Sanderson, a lawyer wants no part of her. But, Charlene is desperate for a lawyer to clear her name. Peter Sanderson refuses but he eventually gives in. Martin and Latifah were funny. Eugene Levy is sort of annoying. The script was alright, but it worked to some degree. Overall, this movie has too many stereotypes, but the movie itself was good and funny. I rate this film a 7/10.