Something New

I will have to start by saying, I have never been in an interracial relationship but I am not opposed to them. However, I do have friends who have been an IR, so I'm not completely unexperienced with them. That said, some of the things in this film are unbelievable, or maybe its just me. Her girlfriends act as if having sex with a white man was some outlandish thing, like she had had sex with an alien or something. And the whole while I'm going---Jesus, the man is Caucasian, not a martian. I don't know any black women who would be like that, but again, that could be just me. And if it had been the other way around, if the white guy's friends had been like that, wide-eyed and shocked (which probably isn't untrue in actuality) I guarantee that would have been perceived as racist. Rightfully so.

I can't say that I rooted for Sanaa Lathan's character either. Don't get me wrong, I think she's a nice actress, but she was irritating in this film, so was her mother. Some of the issues addressed though in the film ring bitterly true, such as how a black woman might feel in white-dominated corporate America and how it might be difficult for her to find a man on her level, or man who truly wants her for her and not her money. All that said, I watched it until the end because I am a fan of Simon Baker. Its overall a good film, but the best IR flick remains "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."

First off, this movie is NOT about a shortage of black men. In fact, there are plenty of black men in this movie: husbands, brothers, boyfriends, guys at Starbucks, club-goers. It just so happens that the main character Kenya, a black woman, falls in love with a white man. What's the big freakin deal?!?! To repeat, this movie is not about a shortage of black men; it never claims to be. It's a love story and one that is complicated by race. I thought the issues they had to deal with as a couple were very real, particularly Kenya's issues with her job.

I can totally relate to the Kenya character and I can easily think of 10 other black women who probably can too. This film was refreshing; it was so nice to see a smart, successful black woman as the main character of a movie. GO SEE IT!

"Something New" is a charming chick flick crossed with the BUPpie (Black Urban Professional) genre, like "The Best Man" and "The Woodsman."

While those guy films featured Sanaa Lathan, she really gets to shine here, and her chemistry with the actresses playing her three girlfriends is wonderful. Unusual for a chick flick, the girlfriends all have believable, non-media jobs given their post-graduate degreed education and competence, including lawyer and pediatrician, and are at age-appropriate, mid-'30's points in their ambitious careers. I've never watched UPN-type sit coms like "Girlfriends" to know if the portrayal of their entertaining interchanges, amidst a whirling camera, is unusual, particularly about the woes of dating, but they do sound like a racially charged take on "Sex and the City". I think it is probably unusual that we get to see Lathan's "Kenya McQueen" substantively at work, dealing with subtle issues of racism and sexism (including much discussion of "the black tax"). We absolutely believe she is a workaholic who has just made her first big investment, in a bare house.

But key is that Lathan and Simon Baker are wonderful together and that the stops and starts, hots and cools of their relationship are believable. I find it amusing that non-TV watching movie critics refer much to his appearance in "L.A. Confidential" as that was barely a cameo, while he registered as a hunk in several seasons of "The Guardian" and a hero in "Land of the Dead". But this is the first we've seen him as all get out romantic and the camera loves his rugged, scruffy look, as he's an outdoorsy landscaper.

Their courting and post-coital scenes are wonderfully sweet, the best such sensual scenes since "Bull Durham". I particularly liked the intimate, in tight close-ups, curiosity of their inter-racial discussions (though we only learn about her Afro-centric academic family and not his ethnically neutral one), leading to him committing what Oprah says is the number one no-no: never ask an African-American woman about her hair. At least we learn about his business background and also got one interchange where he seemed like a normal guy and not just too and not just too world-music listening, community garden volunteering, etc. good to be true.

I was glad that her father finally had a speech about historic diversity, sounding like Henry Louis Gates in the PBS series "African-American Lives", because even though debut director Sanaa Hamri and scripter Kriss Turner developed this with Lathan in mind, according to her interviews, she seems as black as bi-racial Halle Berry (as opposed to her darker-skinned friends), as I wondered why her hair au natural wasn't even curlier.

The film goes way out of its way to be fair to African-American men, including a too long stand-up comic routine. It's not easy finding a reason for a woman not to hook up with Blair Underwood.

I'll have to trust that the representations of African-American cotillion culture, including snappy choreography, were correct, because the film was incorrect in having a wedding of, ironically, their mutual friend in a synagogue, as they are not used for such personal events. I hope it wasn't for the sake of a joke by ladies in scanty summer dresses about being in a rabbi's office.

The cinematography has harsh contrasts in the California sun, which Baker has said in interviews was due to the differences between skin color.

I am 51, single, and a black woman. I have seen this movie twice, once with my youngest single sister and the second time with another younger single sister. I paid full price each time and will see it for a third time with a married girlfriend. I like the subject matter and say it is about time, not just for the subject, but also that it did not portray us black sisters in a derogatory light. We can be more than hookers and gangsters and maids on the big screen. My sisters and I identify with Kenya and unfortunately, we are all in that percentage class of the unmarrieds.

It reminds me of the classic "Guess Who Is Coming to Dinner". I loved that movie too. It broke barriers. There are more relationships going on like this than we care to admit. My sisters and I would date a white man in a minute, if it was meant to be. Race isn't a preference. If we could each find one good man, he could be green and we would date him.

At the second showing, some in the audience clapped at the end, and we lingered for sometime afterwards and read all the credits. We really liked it and so much of it was true. The soundtrack is beautiful. I can't wait for the DVD and the CD soundtrack to be released. I fell "in love" with this movie. Love is more than color. The only thing that would have made me more love sick is if Brian was played by the hot and cute flavor of the day Matthew McConaughey!! I said it, yes I did!

Additional comment: Okay, I saw this movie for the third time and paid full price cause I loved it. It saddens me that this movie is not getting the PR it deserves. It's a hot topic, especially since it deals with us being seriously involved with a white man. The brothers have been doing this for years, yes years! Sisters, I say allow yourself to flip the script.

Geesehoward, to clarify something in your post: Sanaa's lover did not "assume" that she had a weave. It was after a night of lovemaking that he asked her about it as they lay in bed the next morning. I'm sure he was trying to run his fingers through her hair and found he was unable to.

I am a black woman who is married to a white man. I read the interview with Sanaa where she talked about living in Harlem and being terrified of holding his hand because she was afraid of the judgment. I felt as though she was writing my life story. Before we got married, my then boyfriend lived in Soho and I in Harlem. Walking around together in lower Manhattan, we got a few looks, but nothing even remotely close to the venom that was spit at us when we were together up in my neighborhood. People would stop dead in their tracks, hands on hips and say horrible things to us! And this is in the 21st Century! There were times I would actively dissuade my husband from showing me any affection in a Black environment because I didn't want the brothers to take it the wrong way and think it was an overt slap in their face-- you know, white man comes up in to the Black neighborhood to claim the Black woman while the Black man stands idly by. But after a time, I got over it. My man was just trying to love me. He was willing to take all the insults and stand by me and allow me to open myself up and let him in, so to speak. And I am so glad I did. I have been fortunate in having had positive relationships with all of the men I have dated seriously (who btw, were all Black). They all brought something special to the table. My husband just happened to come into my life at the right time when I was opening up to the idea of trying "something new". I have learned a lot from him, but he has also learned a lot from me. I think this movie did SO much in the way of allowing people to get a little more used to the idea that love comes in all shapes sizes and colors, and that it also comes with problems, depending on the type of relationship. Interracial relationships are going to always have family and societal disapproval, but guess what, everyone comes around eventually once they realized that it's not superficial, that there's true, honest love there. This is because people are just people, and if someone takes the time to get to know you, you discover all the things you have in common that have nothing to do with skin color. The moral of this extended post is this: After we had been dating for some time, my husband moved up to Harlem. Before you knew it, he was friends with everybody on the block and knew more people in my neighborhood than I did. That's because people are just afraid of what they don't know. Yes there is a lot of historical baggage attached to race in this country, but we can't keep schleping it around with us all the time, we've got to let it go, let it flow. I encourage all of you to see the movie. It was your typical predictable rom com, yes, where everything works out okay in the end, but it also has a lot to recommend it. I thought it was on point and funny and sad and all that good stuff. Go see it! (Plus it's the first studio film that's written, directed, produced and starred in by Black women!) You go ladies!