Love Jones

[1997, Movie]

Love Jones: Review

Make up to break up: Larenz Tate and Nia Long

Sexy and soulful like the smoothest slow jam, writer-director Theodore Witcher's debut feature is a classy, surprisingly accomplished romantic comedy focusing on life and love among of a group of young African-American Chicagoans. Nina (Nia Long) is an aspiring photographer who's nursing her wounds after being dumped by her fiance. Darius (Larenz Tate) is an aspiring novelist with a cool lothario pose that saves him from ever having to form a meaningful relationship. When they hook up, it's more than just great sex: It's the dreaded love jones, which neither one is willing to admit. Witcher's film is really a very simple story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl (repeatedly), boy gets girl. But it's refreshingly free of the broad racial stereotypes that define the BOOTY CALL/PHAT BEACH/THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE school of raunchy romantic comedy, and the fact that it's as much her story as it is his boosts this one a notch or two above the merely conventional. Stylishly photographed (with a thin layer of South Side Chicago grit beneath the glossy exterior) and graced with an appealing supporting cast that includes Isaiah Washington, Lisa Nicole Carson and MTV's Bill Bellamy, this just may be this season's perfect date movie. --Ken Fox