For many, Valentine's Day is a time to celebrate, to rejoice in love and companionship. For others, it is that yearly stab in the gut, the dreaded reminder that once again a year has passed with absolutely nothing new occurring in the area of love.
The film industry tries its best to please both parties, flooding the scene with romantic comedies. The depressed and lonely can sit in a dark corner, cry and fill the hole with a couple boxes of over-priced candy, while the envied couple has yet another opportunity to make out in public. Thankfully, "Something New" fulfills both these purposes while providing a serious look into an unfortunate flaw that continues to make love a little bit harder to achieve: prejudice.
The successful, upper-class African American Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) is well on her way to achieving the perfect life. The promise of becoming a partner at her law firm and her newly purchased, immaculately decorated home leave her only one thing to desire: An equally successful African-American man to accompany her.
Courtesy of a friend, Kenya finds herself on a blind date sitting across from a charming, yet unfortunately white, man, Brian (Simon Baker). This small blight in her perfectly planned life is quickly rectified with a rude dismissal and swift evacuation of the Starbucks. Despite her efforts, another unexpected run-in leaves her with a white man who is definitely interested in her (and with a new landscape architect).
As the adventurous, middle-class, dog-loving Brian wiggles his way into her heart, Kenya begins to shed her own preconceptions but faces the judgment and criticism of the black community concerning this undesirable interracial relationship.
As Kenya's mother vehemently voices her disgust with a man infinitely inferior to her daughter, her equally well-to-do father appears as the supportive figure every daughter hopes for. As usual in most romantic comedies, the audience is reassured that love is able to over-come all kinds of differences, physical and emotional.
Though exploring the effect skin color has on a relationship might not seem ripe for comedy, the film keeps the audience laughing thanks to Brian's predictable naivet?© concerning African American culture as well as Kenya's girlfriends' endless sexual banter. Additionally, Kenya's younger brother Nelson (Donald Faison) never fails to provide a laugh with his never-ending string of various women who are all wooed by his new Jag convertible, thoughtfully purchased by his successful parents for their less successful son.
Sanaa Lathan is best known for her role in "Love and Basketball" (2000), another example of a struggling development of a love-hate relationship. In her role as Kenya, however, she undergoes a remarkable transformation from an emotionally closed-off, sheltered woman to someone comfortable enough to embrace a healthy relationship despite constant attempts of sabotage.
Simon Baker plays the rugged, all-American man all the ladies hope to run into today. His sensitivity and down-to-earth nature offer the perfect contrast to that of his uptight love interest who is initially determined to push him away.
Together, Lathan and Baker create a believable bond that makes even the most disillusioned of Scrooges want to keep looking for that special someone. Without their entrancing chemistry, the film would just be another critique on the ills of prejudice with a couple of well-placed laughs.
No matter whether it is
accompanied by a box of Twinkies or a long-lost love, "Something New" provides meaningful as well as comical insight into the age-old search for love.
