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Something New

Rating: 2 stars

By BROOKE HOLGERSON | February 2, 2006

2.0 Stars

Director Sanaa Hamri’s first feature doesn’t attempt something new so much as try to revive something old — it’s yet another romantic comedy with a twist. Sanaa Lathan’s Kenya is an uptight LA lawyer with a conservative firm. Then she meets Brian (Simon Baker), a laid-back landscaper; the twist is that she’s black and he’s white, and though he doesn’t see that as a problem, she does, fearing criticism from her friends and parents about her new boy toy. It’s good to see affluent black characters on screen (a subplot about the subtle racism at Kenya’s office is well handled), but the film doesn’t really have anything fresh to say about race relations in America, or about interracial couples. Their problems aren’t racial, they’re personal. According to Hamri, all they need do is break down preconceptions and be more understanding and the rest of the world will fall in line. That’s a nice idea but hardly a new one.

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