I insisted on seeing How Stella Got Her Groove Back for The Movie Show, ...older woman younger man story, it could have potential: 40 year-old driven career woman Stella - Angela Bassett - divorced mother of a very nice ten year-old son falls in love with a 20 year-old Jamaican - Taye Diggs while taking a quick holiday with best friend Whoopi Goldberg. And it goes beyond the holiday romance thing. It could have worked, but just about every element is wrong.
Angela Bassett who`s great as a thinking woman`s heroine up there on the big screen just goes on and on about the age difference. Hey, with Harrison Ford wooing Anne Heche, Woody Allen wooing anyone under thirty and Sean Connery no slouch as an aging on-screen lover of much younger women, what`s the big deal? But really, the film goes on and on and on about it.... for over two hours.... Ron Bass worked on the screenplay with Terry McMillan, the same writing combination that brought us Waiting to Exhale, both based on McMillan`s novels. This one is apparently based on McMillan`s real life relationship with a Jamaican. And that`s the feeling you get through the film, that we`re not seeing a movie, we`re seeing a dramatised documentary and like real life it doesn`t have much wit or pizzazz for onlookers even though those involved seem to be having a whale of a time.
Everyone`s raving about Angela Bassett in this film, I found her wooden. Whoopi Goldberg gets away with murder and the director, Kevin Rodney Sullivan lets her. And Stella`s young man, newcomer to the screen Taye Diggs, seems hunky and charming and the director lingers on pecs and smile. About the only thing I found at all real and entertaining in this movie was Regina King as Stella`s sister Vanessa. Now there`s a woman with spirit and a sense of humour. Unfortunately she wasn`t the subject of the movie. Too long, too boring. 1 star for Regina.
