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'Something New': Isn't very

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Part romantic comedy and part racial lecture, there really is not much new in the unfortunately titled Something New, but it does feature a couple of attractive lead actors and is a bit more intelligent that the average date-night movie. These days, that is probably enough for this first feature by Sanaa Hamri to find an audience and boost a few careers.

Focus Features 'Something New' B- The verdict: An interracial romantic comedy, with a few new twists to the standard formula. Director: Sanaa Hamri Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Blair Underwood, Alfre Woodard, Mike Epps Run time: 99 minutes Release date: Feb. 3, 2005 Rating:PG-13 for sexual references. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

For starters, we learn that 42.4 percent of black women will never marry, a statistic bemoaned by workaholic accounting firm partner-to-be Kenya McQueen (meticulous Sanaa Lathan) and her small circle of African-American professional women. Kenya is interested in finding a man, but she is so picky and devotes so little time to the task that in her case the odds are even higher.

Still, a co-worker sets her up with a blind date, Bryan Kelly (Simon Baker) who seems to fit most of her criteria except that he is white. Kenya handles the encounter clumsily and rudely, so Bryan should be turned off, but, hey, this is the movies. He continues to pursue her, she tries to apologize by hiring him as her landscape gardener and slowly he breaks down her defenses. But since there is time before the inevitable wrap-up, they break up and she gets involved with an "I.B.M." (ideal black male), played by Blair Underwood, a too-slick attorney who has all the right moves.

Hamri does take us on a tour of Los Angeles sites rarely seen on film, inside the upper-class black culture, including a climactic scene at an ethnic cotillion. First-time screenwriter Kriss Turner injects some interesting speeches about race, but they usually sound like author's messages.

Nevertheless, as boy-gets-girl/loses-girl/gets-girl pictures go, Something New is a notch above the formula.