A struggling New York City actor enlists the help of a movie make-up artist after finding himself on mafia boss Frank Langella'a hit list (never mind why). The idea was suggested by an old Saturday Night Live skit featuring Eddie Murphy in Caucasian drag, and that one joke is expanded here by its original author into a contrived action-comedy partially redeemed by the enthusiastic efforts of a talented cast, led by newcomer Lenny Henry. The British comedian takes advantage of his feature film debut with an engaging comic performance, highlighting his gift for mimicry while disguised (courtesy of some astonishing prosthetic make-up) as a reluctant white man. But the feature length padding is all too obvious, and it's hard to ignore the script's TV roots when every labored plot complication seems sit-com inspired. To its credit the film doesn't pretend to be anything more than an amusing diversion, but the limited comic potential of the source material is such that the funniest scene (with Henry masquerading as James Brown's younger brother) has nothing to do with the racial identity-switch plot hook.
Review of True Identity
