Movies/TV
Chris Rock’s Rocky Marriage
By Esther Iverem--SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic
Mar 16, 2007, 13:20

I don’t know what is happening in Chris Rock’s real-life marriage (and it’s none of our business) but he sure has brought a breath of fresh air to Black marriage on the big screen.

His second film directing effort, “I Think I Love My Wife,” is funny, irreverent and empathetic toward the difficulties of committed relationships. It fast forwards from the mini-spate of wedding movies in the late 90’s (“The Wood,” “The Best Man”) and allows the hip-hop generation to grow up some more on the big screen. For a generation that has entered the 40’s, there are few movie depictions of its members as spouses or parents—(and that is one reason why I had so much love for Tyrese Gibson in “Waist Deep.”)

“I Think I Love My Wife” tells the story of Richard Cooper (Rock), his wife Brenda (Gina Torres) and the other woman, Nikki Tru (Kerri Washington), who starts showing up at Richard’s Wall Street office in clothes more suitable for a nightclub. We know right off the bat that Richard and Brenda, who enjoy a comfortable lifestyle with their two children in a New York City suburb, are not having sex anymore because Brenda is tired and disinterested. And we know that because Richard ain’t getting no booty, he is bored and frustrated in his relationship. So, once hot Nikki enters the picture, we know that the plot will revolve around Richard. Will he or won’t he (become another philandering husband)?

This main point of the plot is one that may be viewed differently by men and women. The subtexts of the plot include, for me, the higher incidence of divorce in the Black community, the now-famous 42.4 percent of Black women who do not marry, whether single women respect the marriages of other women, many new narratives that make sex the central point and tool in relationships, and factors that make a man (or woman) leave their spouse and children. Others may think that Brenda needs to get with the program or definitely lose her husband, and that Richard is well within his rights to seek intimacy elsewhere since it is not provided at home.

This is obviously a lot of social context for a romantic comedy but Rock carries it off well, with stinging jokes, including ones about male fantasies, the sizes of women’s panties and Viagra. The story is primarily told from Richard’s male perspective, though, so we empathize most with him and see the women in his life through his eyes. We don’t really get to know Brenda, or Nikki for that matter, in the way that we get to know, for example, Renée Zellweger’s character in “Jerry Maguire.” We don’t hear Brenda’s side of the story. She just seems wrong and, as the lady sitting next to me at the screening said, “like she’s playing herself.” Speaking of “Jerry Maguire,” this movie could have also benefited from a few words from Richard and Brenda’s cute children.

Despite its missing pieces, “I Think I Love My Wife” is an enjoyable, human flick. It reminds us that, as adults, our decisions are ours alone, and that we can’t blame anyone—even our spouses or the spouses of other people—for what we decide to do with our lives.

Esther Iverem’s forthcoming book, We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986-2006 (Thunder’s Mouth Press), is available at Amazon.com.


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