'Brown Sugar' is clever, romantic comedy set in the world of hip hop
By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service
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| BROWN SUGAR (Rated PG-13 for profanity and sexual innuendo) Three Stars (Good)
An appealing, stylish, well-acted romance, with Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan as longtime friends who shockingly discover that they're in love. The film is cleverly set (but not dominated by) the world of hip-hop music. Rick Famuyiwa directs. Fox Searchlight, 109 mins. |
And so we have "Brown Sugar" being labeled a black "When Harry Met Sally."
Fortunately, "Brown Sugar" is appealing, stylish and unpretentious enough to carry such socio-political weight and cinematic comparison. It's a good start for first-time executive producer (and basketball legend) Magic Johnson.
Stars Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan make a handsome, oh-so-natural couple, so perfect as friends they don't recognize the love that envelopes them.
Diggs and Lathan are among the chief reasons "Brown Sugar" is such an appealing, sweet and sexy film.
Diggs is Dre and Lathan is Sidney, and they've known each other since they were little kids on the block in Brooklyn. They always shared a love of hip-hop music and culture.
Dre parlayed his affection into a job with a big rap-music record label, while Sidney became a music journalist for the Los Angeles Times.
Both stayed in touch and considered the other the best friend, but were never inspired to move the relationship to the romantic level.
But things seem to change with proximity. Sidney moves back to New York to edit a new hip-hop magazine, while Dre starts his own independent music label.
Both hope to rediscover the passion and honesty they first found in the music — but they also discover a passion for each other.
Of course, if they made the discovery instantly, there wouldn't be much of a movie. Instead, Dre goes through with a marriage to an ambitious entertainment lawyer (Nicole Ari Parker) while Sidney romances a New Jersey Net basketball player (Boris Kodjoe). Each feels a certain jealousy about the romances of the other but doesn't quite recognize it. It takes their friends — Francine (the always-delightful Queen Latifah) and a rapper named Chris (Mos Def) — to help lift the fog.
Diggs and Lathan both demonstrate subtlety as they display the complexities, uncertainties, concerns and pleasures of friends shifting gradually into romance.
Director and co-writer Rick Famuyiwa exploits the couple's attitude about hip hop as subterfuge for their feelings. But the verbal sparring also offers the entertaining humor and character admired in the screen couples of Hollywood's golden age of screwball romances.
The film's hip-hop setting is nicely balanced and finely etched — and efficiently displays the quest for honesty and integrity in any creative endeavor. More importantly, the music and its world provides a setting for a story, but doesn't take over the story.
In other words, the setting is a plus for the many fans of the music, but not a negative for viewers who still think hip hop is something a bunny does.
Rated PG-13 for profanity and sexual innuendo.
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