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Homeboy meets homegirl
[Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]
Sanaa Lathan, left, and Taye Diggs star in a romantic comedy, Brown Sugar. |
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 10, 2002
Brown Sugar bubbles with conventional love that's got a hip-hop flavor boost
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Brown Sugar is a rare romantic comedy that really gets into the occupations of people who we know from the start are made for each other. Just propping Meg Ryan behind a book store counter in You've Got Mail doesn't sell us on her passion for literature that must, in some way, be affecting her love life.
Lovers are usually architects or lawyers (usually in New York) in title and a couple of props only.
The backdrop for Brown Sugar is a slice of the Big Apple with a fresh flavor, the urban hip-hop scene. Sure, the rap music industry has been an excuse for celebrity cameos in several films but director and co-writer Rick Famuyiwa nicely sketches the history and cultural influence of hip-hop without sacrificing -- actually embellishing -- the reason we're in the theater: to see attractive people overcome obstacles and fall in love.
The lovers in question are Dre (Taye Diggs) and Sidney (Sanaa Lathan), childhood friends who first discovered hip-hop in 1984 during a playground rap showdown. They always remained close friends, nothing more. Both became successful in the music industry; Dre as a record producer and Sidney as a music journalist. Both will face career or personal crises that pull them together.
When one gets married and the other gets engaged, their friendship causes problems for their jealous mates. Famuyiwa pulls the right strings, even if some of them dangle too long. At 108 minutes for such a predictable plot, Brown Sugar does overstay its welcome a bit.
Yet the film works because of Diggs' and Lathan's easy-to-adore manners and a supporting cast that puts new twists on romantic-comedy sidekick conventions. Queen Latifah is fun in the Thelma Ritter/Rosie O'Donnell girlfriend role and Nicole Ari Parker and Boris Kodjoe create believable conflicts for Dre and Sidney's affections. Best of all there's rapper Mos Def as Chris, a cab driver with dope rhymes who may be Dre's next big discovery. Def has a look ready-made for comedy and sly timing that works.
Sidney's writings become an integral part of the romance, with her passion for hip-hop reflecting her passion for Dre. It's a telling point that her decision of who to love turns on which man took the time to read her articles, getting to know her through her prose. Dre's occupation adds a fine musical soundtrack and some jabs at the industry, especially a black-white rap duo -- the Hip-Hop Dalmatians -- turning a Michael Jackson-Paul McCartney song into a naughty bluff.
Brown Sugar also takes a moment to mark its status as the first film that started production in New York after the Sept. 11 attacks, with a time-lapse skyline shot like those in dozens of other metropolitan romances. This time, however, the twin blue spotlight beams that marked Ground Zero switch on. Like other parts of the movie, it's an arresting moment in the midst of conventional storytelling.
Brown Sugar
- Grade: B-plus
- Brown Sugar
- Director: Rick Famuyiwa
- Cast: Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Mos Def, Nicole Ari Parker, Queen Latifah
- Screenplay: Michael Elliot, Rick Famuyiwa
- Rating: PG-13; profanity, sexual situations
- Running time: 108 min.
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