Movie Review: I Think I Love My Wife

I saw this movie (out on DVD today) for three reasons: Chris Rock, Steve Buscemi and Gina Torres. Chris Rock is hilarious, and since he directed and co-wrote the movie, I had high hopes. Steve Buscemi has a talent for picking interesting stuff, plus something about him just makes me happy. Gina Torres is gorgeous and part of me hopes that if I continue to watch things with her in it I will spontaneous start to look like her. I didn't really have any expectations going in, though I recalled it didn't do well at the box office.

The movie boils down to this: Rock plays a married man, in the boring rut of his day-to-day existence and shut out from sex by his wife engages in what we'd probably have to call an "emotional affair" with an attractive woman he knew before. Some not-so-subtle racial content is mixed in, and honestly, felt to me like Rock felt he had to make some sort of comment about race more than it felt like a necessary part of the story. The story becomes how we live out the choices that we make, and that we are as much responsible for our happiness as anyone else is.

I loved the bizarre nature of Rock's character's affair, which teaches that different doesn't always mean better. I appreciated that the movie didn't make either spouse the "bad guy", instead exploring how complex marriages can be. I was totally weirded out by the ending, and that's all I'll say about that.

This isn't one I plan to buy, but I didn't feel that it wasted my time, either. I think it's a decent cautionary tale to married couples about getting caught up in "life" so much that you forget to live.

I'd have to give it 2 1/2 stars out of 5 - it would have been three without the odd ending.