HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Twentieth Century Fox Director: Kevin Rodney Sullivan Writer: Ron Bass & Terry McMillan, novel by McMillan Cast: Angela Bassett, Taye Diggs, Suzzanne Douglas, Whoopi Goldberg, Regina King, Michael Pagan.
In one happy scene of Kevin Rodney Sullivan's movie "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," Stella's ex-husband sits back, shares a beer with her upcoming mate, and gives him advice that he doesn't need. He counsels the much younger man that Stella has a long list of rules; that her new man must have the strength to fight against and surmount them. Played by Angela Bassett, Stella is indeed a hardy, intelligent and determined woman albeit one who gladly meets her match. The film, based on a frothy novel by Terry McMillan, focuses more on society's list of rules than her own, and we all know how strong the forces of community can be. Can Stella overcome these dictates and, in fact, should Stella contest them at all? This is the theme of a movie which despite its predictability makes a clear statement. Everyone should have fun in life, McMillan says through one of life's funniest characters, Whoopi Goldberg, and if the greater culture stands in the way, it's the greater culture that's got to go. If you're an older man, feel free to scan the scene for young and sexy babes, we seem to believe. You'll be clapped on the back by your buddies for your success. But if you're a woman who has attracted the attention of a much younger man, stay back. You'll be censured for cradle-robbing, you'll be invited to be ashamed of yourself. No matter that through this sensual and inexperienced youth you've found your groove, that you're suddenly seeing colors more vividly and the world as a wonderful place to be. If you're slightly seasoned, let him go.
This is a terrific theme to work with, given the scarcity of movies that center on October women going out with April men. An affair between the 60-year-old Warren Beatty and the 32-year-old Halle Berry ("Bulworth) is praiseworthy; an attraction between the 56-year-old Harrison Ford and the 30- something Anne Heche is fine. With some sharper editing and more believable dialogue, the film could have been a milestone, nudging society toward a better understanding of Stella's need to break the rules. Unfortunately, Sullivan's version tries our patience with slugging direction, excessive length, and cartoonish characters that you'd more appropriately find in a film featuring the charming Larenz Tate.
Yet another story that proves you can be rich and unhappy, "Stella" hones in on the 40-year-old title character (Angela Bassett) who is assured in her job as a high-powered securities analyst, has a gorgeous home outside San Francisco, and enjoys the affection of a bright 11-year-old son, Quincy (Michael J. Pagan). The house is too large for her and she's lonely. On an impulse after watching a TV commercial for Jamaica (she makes a mental substitution of her own face for the blond visage on the screen), she invites her best friend Delilah (Whoopi Goldberg) to join her on the island paradise. Over a glass of orange juice in the posh hotel dining room, she is approached by a 20-year-old man described by some in a screening audience as an Adonis, Winston Shakespeare (Taye Diggs). Responding with the obvious line that she is old enough to be his mother, Stella is nonetheless flattered by his attention. When her initial surprise gives way to a suspicion that this is going to be the best vacation of her life, she is faced with a dilemma. How to carry the liaison a step further? If she hooks up with the fetching lad, she will have to introduce him to her family and friends and, given the almost certain disapproval of her little world, how will she manage?
For comic relief the script, adaptated by Ron Bass and Terry McMillan from the novel of the same name relies on the extraodinary Whoopi Goldberg. As Delilah she has no difficulty latching on to two hale and hearty guys, enjoying them with her accustomed abandon. But here the scripters break a film industry rule of their own, one which makes a good deal of sense: do not inflict tragedy on the story's comic relief. Delilah's serious illness is pumped for pathos in an unnecessary sequence, which seems to have been appended only because the novelist lost her own best friend during an actual affair with a Jamaican man. Moreover, Stella comes across as awkward by repeatedly tacking on the colloquial "girl" at the end of many sentences, an unlikely idiom for someone of her age, class, and level of education. Her kid sister Vanessa (Regina King) is annoyingly stereotypical, but her middle sib, Angela (Suzzanne Douglas), best conveys the mood of an upper-middle-class married woman who is concerned about appearance above all else.
A scene that could have been milked further for poignance, even comedy, involves Stella's surprise meeting with Winston's parents. While Winston's dad, a surgeon, has no role to play, her haughty mother has the temerity to insult Stella directly, stating that she should be ashamed of herself for encouraging a relationship with the young man. Rather than accept this criticism without a whimper, a more acerbic Stella might have said, "If you were more of a mother, maybe he would not now be looking for one."
Island photography took place on location in Montego Bay with a series of southern California locales simulating the San Francisco Bay area. A strong cast and solid tech credits fail to make the relationship believable, but not because of the age difference per se. Stella is a woman of the world, a high- powered investment counselor considering a salary offer of $275,000 plus incentives as executive V-P of a large securities firm. For all his sensuality, broad smile, and politely forward manner, Winston has been nowhere and has only a vague notion at age 20 of what he is to become. What movies will they see together? In this story, he opts for an adolescent pick of the "animal house" variety which has him in stitches while his woman friend sits with a dour look throughout. What music will they enjoy? What will they talk about when they get over discussions of the 20-year contrast in their ages? As 11-year-old Annie says to her divorced folks in "The Parent Trap," "Sex isn't everything." If this movie wants us to accept the fact that one of society's rules is irrational, it achieves only the opposite. Stella has every right to do what she likes within the law to get her groove back, to have more fun in life. The trouble is that Winston will not provide her with that.
Rated R. Running time: 116 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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