Something New Movie Review:


Decent movie, awful title -- apart from being bland and unmemorable ("What are you seeing this weekend?" "Something New." "OK, sure, but which new movie?"), it's unintentionally ironic. Very little is new in “Something New,” a genial romance with the mismatched races twist. But it's an inviting movie because it coasts patiently and is willing to gently stay with its characters.

This movie is an example of considerate new vision vs. the dregs of old formula. First-time feature director Sanaa Hamri pays close attention to her leading lady, Kenya (Sanaa Lathan), allowing her to feel her way convincingly through a situation we've all seen played out before. A successful black woman who is about to be made partner at her accounting firm, Kenya reveals herself to be fussy, uptight, and controlling -- in other words, she needs major loosening up. What better way to have that happen than through falling in love with a person who's everything she's not?

The movie's conventions -- chatty single girlfriends, the influence of parents, and, of course, the racial concerns of Kenya's community always looming over her -- remain conventions, though Hamri's relative constraint in all these matters is welcome and appreciated. No drums of hysteria are beat here; we just quietly see Kenya's internal tug-of-war, which is a tone more appropriate to the actions of today's culture conscious citizens. Hamri also makes great use of color as a reflection of Kenya's feelings. Conversations about improving visual appeal (of one's self and one's surroundings) parallel the main character's development.

“Something New” therefore looks warm and inviting; unfortunately, most of the moments it stages were refined decades ago, and aren't otherwise updated in any significant way here -- the appearance of a more practical alternative boyfriend, the good-cop/bad-cop division of the parents, the 11th hour realization and subsequent rush, etc. Even the white-boyfriend-in-a-black-community idea surfaced as recently as last year's “Guess Who.”.

“Something New” will have to make do with being another iteration, albeit a confidently told and color-sensual one, of a familiar story, just another rub in the constant massaging of the viewing public who find comfort in such fare.



Jeffrey Chen

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