Being an admirer of Queen Latifah, who I believe as a great talent, I really to like this film. But I'm afraid I can't recommend it.
First, it is clear the cast and crew think the script funnier than it is; that's important, because it means there are going to be editing mistakes - not glaring ones like mismatched shots in inter-cut, but mistakes in timing, when the editor thinks there's a audience laugh to be allowed for with the brief "take" of an actor's response to a line or slow-burn; but the laugh doesn't arrive, so the takes are just dead time, dragging the film down.
Which of course leads to the second problem , the film's pacing. It is very erratic. Some scenes have no build-up, some have too much and end up over-extended which all amounts to "slow"; there are actually 'slow comedy' techniques (Jack Benny was a master). But this is basically a sit-com without a laugh track, so it needs to move at a real clip; but it doesn't.
Finally there's manner in which Latifah is presented. The director clearly admires her acting as much as I do, but he keeps trying to emphasize it. Latifah understands that an actor only needs small gestures and expressions on film, since the camera enlarges everything; but the director here really tries to bring our attention to her performance so that she appears to be over-acting sometimes when that is not the case - actually, the camera lingers too long, there are too many close-ups and they are too close for the naturalistic performance Latifah is trying to accomplish.
That happens, to a lesser extent, with all the actors, all of whom are doing their best.
But it's a weak script to start with, and the director hasn't yet found a focus that elevates it, so the acting gets pretty lost along the way.
Watchable, but not much more.
