I Think I Love My Wife.

I Think I Love My Wife "is a remake, at once free-handed and faithful, of Chloe in the Afternoon (1972), the sixth and last of Eric Rohmer's Moral Tales," notes AO Scott in the New York Times. "[Chris] Rock's affection for this source is evident in his careful restaging of some of its shots and scenes, even though Mr Rohmer's wry, ironical temperament could not be further from Mr Rock's candid, confrontational stand-up style.... In short, I Think I Love My Wife is smart and likable, which is lavish praise in a season whose comic offerings have included Music and Lyrics and Because I Said So. The success of this movie also suggests, refreshingly enough, that not every Hollywood remake of a French movie is necessarily a crime against taste."

Updated through 3/21.

"I must confess that when I heard about the project, I secretly hoped it would be a triumph just for the pleasure of watching cinema snobs foam at the mouth," writes JR Jones in the Chicago Reader. But Rock and screenwriting partner Louis CK's "crowd-pleasing gags are completely at odds with Rohmer's cagey moral comedy."

For Slate's Dana Stevens, "The most shocking thing about I Think I Love My Wife isn't the language, the sex, or the racial humor. It's the fact that it's not a funny movie. At all."

Kevin Crust, writing in the Los Angeles Times, calls Wife "Chris Rock's most mature effort, and the most dated.... It's not so much misogynistic as it resembles a fossil from another era."

"[T]he film comes to feel like a vehicle designed to let Rock first vent about balls-and-chains and their slutty, harpy inverses, and then be absolved of such nasty attitudes by an unearned Hollywood ending which proves that marital lovemaking and bliss can be yours if you nag enough, refuse to ravage gorgeous women in stilettos, and avoid changing anything about your egocentric self," writes Nick Schager at Slant.

"Funnily enough, the biggest problem with Rock's film is Rock himself - his direction, writing and acting all need work," writes Erik Davis at Cinematical. "Though he's appeared in almost twenty films, the man still hasn't learned the difference between delivering a line on stage and on screen."

Mike Russell: "There is no one in this movie to root for, and too few jokes to laugh at."

For the Stranger's Andrew Wright, this is "a bigger squandering of his talent than all of the prior Bad Companies, Dogmas, and Madagascars combined."

Vadim Rizov for the Reeler: "The film is technically incompetent (eye-line matches are off, the alleged comic highlights are slackly edited, etc.), but the sense of effort during the racial bits keeps it moving forward." Meanwhile, ST VanAirsdale talks with Rock.

Update, 3/21: "Funny how the drama Black Snake Moan starts with a black man explaining the blues, then transfers that paradigm to a white couple," writes Armond White in the New York Press. "Unfunny how comedian Chris Rock sets out to make a Negro-centric romantic comedy in I Think I Love My Wife but winds up with a movie that is mired in connubial misgivings and pledges routine allegiance to the banalities of white-centric romantic comedies."

Posted by dwhudson at March 19, 2007 6:25 AM