C’mon, Peeples
Peeples, 2013
I pretty much watch two kinds of movies these days: Oscar Best Picture nominees and terrible “Connecticut movies.” As you’ve probably surmised, 2013’s “Peeples” falls in the latter camp. (Okay, it’s not totally terrible, and I’ve seen much worse, but it is a “Tyler Perry Presents” flick which never ends up well.)
At a glorious 95 minutes, it is more than survivable and I even laughed a couple times. Everyone loves the lead Craig Robinson and David Alan Grier is usually pretty fun. S. Epatha Merkerson is a great actress as well. And then there’s Kerry Washington. I’ll admit to a mild crush on her, so I didn’t struggle to get through the whole thing.
“Peeples” could alternatively be titled “Black Meet the Fockers.” It’s the same exact movie more or less. Good guy Wade (Robinson) is seriously dating Grace Peeples, of the esteemed Peeples family. She is a wealthy and beautiful lawyer in Manhattan. Wade is a children’s musician with a heart of gold. Grace’s father is Judge Virgil Peeples, a strict and dour man for whom no man is good enough for his Grace.
I was lying on the couch far away from the television, and really didn’t care to take better pictures and don’t care to edit them in any way. This is the Peeples’s house.
Let the hijinks commence.
The Peeples clan lives in Sag Harbor on Long Island, but the movie was filmed in Connecticut. The Nutmeg State itself is never mentioned, but it was filmed in Greenwich, Stamford, and the Rowayton section of Norwalk. I don’t know where the Peeples house is in real life, but it could be anywhere along the coast of Fairfield County. These multi-million dollar mansions are a dime a dozen down there. In the movie, there are a lot of black people in town.
And that’s pretty much the only reason I watched this movie. I was hoping to see… easily recognizable Connecticut scenes. All I got was this:
Which is this in real life:
And there’s a scene out on the street (Rowayton Avenue):
Which… what is wrong with me? Which in 2013 the door was red but now it’s not. The crosswalk signs are different now to, but this picture is from 2015:
In the movie Wade has a series of missteps which are entirely out of his control. Meanwhile, he discerns Grace’s sister is a lesbian (scandal!), her brother is a bit of a kleptomaniac, the mother is into drugs, and Judge Virgil likes to do things naked on the beach. But he loves Grace and Grace loves him despite hiding her relationship from her family prior to his surprise visit to the house. Oh yeah, I left that part out.
There’s a whole thing about Moby Dick Day for which scenes were filmed at Pinkney Park – literally one block north of the pictures above. It’s a really dumb scene.
Unfortunately not a New England Brewing Sea Hag reference
This scene made me sad for Kerry. You’re better than this, girl!
Whatever. At the end, it all blows up and Wade leaves Grace… until things quickly get sorted and it all works out. Virgil takes to Wade and the couple gets engaged and the lesbian is accepted and mom’s going to rehab the end.
Exactly one library in the massive network of inter library loans here in northern Connecticut had this movie: my hometown of West Hartford. Why? I don’t know. The DVD has a commentary track with, like 20 people yapping. It’s awful, but I fast-forwarded to places where I thought they may say something about Connecticut. Kerry Washington oozed, “This town was aDORABLE!” Someone said, “where was it again?” and she replied, “Rowayton, Connecticut.”
So that was nice.
CTMQ Rating: 2 out of 5 thumbs up
Connecticutness: 68 out of 169 Nutmegs
Filmed in Connecticut? Yes
Wealthy Caucasian with a Big House? No. Black families with really big houses though.
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