Sanaa Hamri's debut feature "Something New" is a romantic comedy about Kenya, a successful black business woman, and Brian, a white landscape architect. It is as much about the development of their relationship as the development of questions about interracial relationships and racial identification. The film borrows heavily from Douglas Sirk's "All That Heaven Allows" and Todd Haynes' more recent adaptation "Far From Heaven." "Something New" uses these previous films as a starting point for its investigation of what inhibits Kenya and Brian's relationship that crosses racial and class boundaries.
The opening frame immediately recalls both films with its autumn leaves falling to the ground. "Something New" uses the class of the warm tones of the leaves to class with Kenya's dull beige world. Just as "All That Heaven Allows" used the color red for sexual activity, Brian paints Kenya's toes red in a scene that hardly needs symbolic color to insinuate sexuality (it is also pleasantly surprising that the MPAA resisted the R-rating slap for this scene). The film borrows its premise from "Far From Heaven" and flips it around to develop its argument further. Instead of an upper middle class white woman falling for a lower class black gardener, Hamri shifts the focus away from mere prejudice to the more complex issue of racial identity. What inhibits Kenya is not racism but a social pressure for her to maintain her connection to her race.
Not borrowed from Sirk or Haynes is Shane Hurlbut's cinematography. While Kenya is still irrationally afraid of becoming involved with Brian, Hurlbut overexposes the film to create a more significant contrast between Kenya's dark skin and Brian's light skin. The result is also a rather uncomfortable, almost blinding shot because the backgrounds are so bright. Further, when Kenya and Brian are more comfortable with each other, the shot is significantly darker. The beige coloring of the house combined with the low key lighting makes Brian and Kenya's skin nearly identical in shade.
These tactics are unfortunately not well developed, as the film drops these ideas about half way through in the interest of being a cookie-cutter romantic comedy. What is left is the inventive, though still stereotypical, set of parents and friends. Kenya's parents are basically white, but attempt to maintain their black identities through what is shown to be irrational rituals. Kenya has been brought up on the same set of ideals and is consistently ashamed of herself for even entertaining the idea of dating a white man, though she has no idea why. Hamri has no way of conveying these notions except through awkward dialog and lame speeches, with one exception. In another scene that the censors must have missed, Kenya's mother's birthday takes place at a show that can only be viewed as a satire on Kenya's parents attempt to desperately hold onto their African (and it is implied, animalistic) heritage. If only the film could have maintained its momentum with such scenes, it could have transcended its genre.
The film entirely falls apart when the love story must finally develop. It forgets all its previous ideas and plops itself right into the pit of cliché and gimmickry. There is a terrible Cinderella moment after Kenya's father unveils that his character really is the archetypal wise old man in a horrible monologue about racial identity. "Something New" poses the complex problem of racial identity in a mixed world, but the ending sadly fails to explore why it is a problem or to recognize any solution to the problem. The only question is does attempt to answer is the immensely dull "Does love conquer all?" The first half is a good film, if borrowed from previous greats, and worth the recommendation.
The opening frame immediately recalls both films with its autumn leaves falling to the ground. "Something New" uses the class of the warm tones of the leaves to class with Kenya's dull beige world. Just as "All That Heaven Allows" used the color red for sexual activity, Brian paints Kenya's toes red in a scene that hardly needs symbolic color to insinuate sexuality (it is also pleasantly surprising that the MPAA resisted the R-rating slap for this scene). The film borrows its premise from "Far From Heaven" and flips it around to develop its argument further. Instead of an upper middle class white woman falling for a lower class black gardener, Hamri shifts the focus away from mere prejudice to the more complex issue of racial identity. What inhibits Kenya is not racism but a social pressure for her to maintain her connection to her race.
Not borrowed from Sirk or Haynes is Shane Hurlbut's cinematography. While Kenya is still irrationally afraid of becoming involved with Brian, Hurlbut overexposes the film to create a more significant contrast between Kenya's dark skin and Brian's light skin. The result is also a rather uncomfortable, almost blinding shot because the backgrounds are so bright. Further, when Kenya and Brian are more comfortable with each other, the shot is significantly darker. The beige coloring of the house combined with the low key lighting makes Brian and Kenya's skin nearly identical in shade.
These tactics are unfortunately not well developed, as the film drops these ideas about half way through in the interest of being a cookie-cutter romantic comedy. What is left is the inventive, though still stereotypical, set of parents and friends. Kenya's parents are basically white, but attempt to maintain their black identities through what is shown to be irrational rituals. Kenya has been brought up on the same set of ideals and is consistently ashamed of herself for even entertaining the idea of dating a white man, though she has no idea why. Hamri has no way of conveying these notions except through awkward dialog and lame speeches, with one exception. In another scene that the censors must have missed, Kenya's mother's birthday takes place at a show that can only be viewed as a satire on Kenya's parents attempt to desperately hold onto their African (and it is implied, animalistic) heritage. If only the film could have maintained its momentum with such scenes, it could have transcended its genre.
The film entirely falls apart when the love story must finally develop. It forgets all its previous ideas and plops itself right into the pit of cliché and gimmickry. There is a terrible Cinderella moment after Kenya's father unveils that his character really is the archetypal wise old man in a horrible monologue about racial identity. "Something New" poses the complex problem of racial identity in a mixed world, but the ending sadly fails to explore why it is a problem or to recognize any solution to the problem. The only question is does attempt to answer is the immensely dull "Does love conquer all?" The first half is a good film, if borrowed from previous greats, and worth the recommendation.