Monday, February 6, 2006

Interracial Couples On Screen

There's a new relationship oriented movie out called "Something New," which, for Hollywood anyway, has a unique twist. It centers around the kind of interracial couple not typically seen on the big screen: A young professional black woman and her white, blue-collar boyfriend. I bring this to your attention because I think it’s great anytime something from the artistic realm--a book, painting, play or, in this case, a film--comes along and gets us to look at relationships in an “outside the box” kind of way. Further, with so many breathtakingly beautiful and talented black actresses at its disposal--Halle Berry, Angela Bassett and Beyonce, are just a few who immediately come to mind--why the film industry doesn’t routinely pair them up romantically, without regard to race, with guys like Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Ben Affleck, is beyond me. In fact, the only downside to “Something New” was in its depiction of the two main characters and their ensuing relationship as being about nothing more than trying to overcome racial and cultural differences. I would have liked the movie better if it had simply been about two people from disparate walks of life looking for love and finding it in unexpected places.