I went to see a movie last weekend at the Magic Johnson Theatre in Harlem, and it was not what I expected it to be. I thought it would be a superficial romp,a date movie containing all the expected cliches of two people getting to know one another for the first time on a blind date. The trailers was cute. But, the movie was in a very subtle and understated way a lot more than it represented. First of all,it was well written and the directing was superb in a low key kind of way.Sanaa Lathan’s performance was very fine and her co-star , Simon Baker, was also very good. The gifted director,Sanaa Hamri is definitely working with some real directorial movie-making skills.
The fact which made the movie stnad out most was the undeniable chemistry between Sanaa and her co-star, which didn’t have anything to do with the acting. It was just the simple and plain truth. In many ways a lot of what happened in the movie was unrealistic– a Hollywood fantasy.But one thing it dealt with realistically was the tension that exists between the races in an office setting and on the dating scene.It was also realistic how the movie dealt with the “Black Tax” or the double burden that is put on black people to be twice or three times better than whites to get the job,to keep it or to “measure up”. I could identify with this and the unusual thing about it was that “Kenya’s” (main character) boyfriend was there for her through those issues,even though he was white.That’s what made it interesting, I think.
Most of the time he gave her a shoulder to cry on and an understanding embrace when her co-workers at the office were meting out the flack ,or “keeping her in her place”. Without giving too much more away,. I commend it to my friends. It’s light,fun,serious,controversial and engaging all at once. I want to say more about the highly charged political and social implications of the subject matter. But,that would take away from the beauty of “Something New”
