"Something New": It's a romantic comedy, but "new" — not so much

Even though it tries to be a socially charged charmer that boasts originality, intellect and wit, there's nothing particularly novel about "Something New," especially the title.

It's partially a play on words — the main character is a single female secretly longing for a traditional wedding. But it's also a reference to what the movie thinks is a hot topic for a unique interracial romantic comedy.

Though it falls short of something new, there are enough pretty faces and smart exchanges to make the movie something vaguely entertaining.

Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) is a beautiful black woman with a privileged pedigree, a new house and a fast-tracked career with a hoity-toity accounting firm (she's about to become full partner). Her biggest problem is a personal life that she's obviously choosing to ignore.

Movie review

Showtimes and trailer

"Something New," with Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Golden Brooks, Mike Epps, Donald Faison, Alfre Woodard, Blair Underwood. Directed by Sanaa Hamri, from a screenplay by Kriss Turner. 100 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sexual references. Several theaters.

One of the points that the movie is eager to drive home through Kenya and her gaggle of friends on equal paths of upward mobility is the statistical struggle African-American women have in finding their "IBM" (Ideal Black Man).

According to Kenya's club, 42.4 percent haven't found their IBM. Trying to reduce the odds just a bit for Kenya, they set her up on a blind date that has something of a prank about it. Brian (Simon Baker) turns out to be a white man. But this is not just any white man: He's rugged, handsome, casual, blond, bemused and insouciant, all with big capital letters that foretell lots of Romantic Comedy for the uptight and easily flustered Kenya.

Brian is also a landscape architect who winds up in Kenya's bedraggled backyard with a grand plan for transformation. He's got a spray of sexy stubble, a subtly hippiefied bead beneath his unbuttoned shirt, a darling golden retriever in the back of his pickup and a gleam in his eye that does more than just hint at his plans for transforming Kenya.

"I take hard earth and make things bloom," he tells her after sensuously groping some overgrown loam. Kenya's brow is furrowed and her hands firmly planted on her hips, but it's not long before Brian does soften Kenya's hardened earth and moves work from the backyard to the bedroom.

"Something New" succeeds on the basic-instinct level of a sexy date movie. Brian and Kenya look great together, as do the supporting cast of friends both male and female. Alfre Woodard and Earl Billings as Kenya's uptight mom and sympathetic dad also add a touch of class.

Though the script doesn't intend it for him, Brian turns out to be largely a token character in a story that too often borders on the preachy about issues interracial. It doesn't help that Lathan outclasses Baker in acting skill. She works hard to make Kenya more than just another authoritative career woman struggling in a world that still demands what the movie refers to more than once as "the black tax," a catch-all phrase that sums up the variety of degradation African Americans endure because of their race.

The race card is still in play no matter what the social strata, but the message gets lost in the medium of excessive cuteness and too many contrived disagreements in dialogue.

Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com