Academy Award winners Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer are locked in a racially-charged custody battle in the new family drama Black or White.

​Costner plays a grieving widower fighting to raise his bi-racial granddaughter (Jillian Estelle), while Spencer plays the paternal grandmother determined to raise her granddaughter closer to her African American roots.

As far as new movies go "this is not a good one," says CBC film critic Eli Glasner, "but you might find a few treasures in the middle of the muck."

The film from The Upside of Anger director Mike Binder is "sentimental, schmaltzy and heavy-handed but underneath are some great performances and a conversation about race that's worth having."

Black or White (which premiered at TIFF under its alternate title Black and White) is in theatres this weekend.

Watch Eli's full review in the video titled "3 stars for Black or White" above.