I Think I Love My Wife

Gifted comedian Chris Rock maintains his batting average as a filmmaker, eking out the likable but ultimately conflicted I Think I Love My Wife. Basing their screenplay on French film Chloe in the Afternoon, Rock and Louis C.K. explore the doldrums of marriage and family life from the perspective of Richard Cooper (Rock), a sex-deprived husband and father who gets a visit from Nikki (Kerry Washington), a flirty, hot old friend. The script hits a lot of the right notes, coming close to bringing the nuances of Rock’s stand-up material to the big screen. Rock might star as a successful, straight-laced financial executive but, in ranting about thongs or Michael Jackson, he sure doesn’t talk like one. Nor does he think like one; just as he does in Everybody Hates Chris, Rock provides a hilarious narrative voiceover to give the film a documentary feel. As he suggests in the feature "I Do Love Making This Movie,” Rock tends to his film with deep focus. With lovingly rendered shots of NYC, Rock mimics Woody Allen but keeps it real by incorporating hip-hop throughout the film and using quick, contemporary editing. Rock and C.K. shovel more dirt into the grave of the "American Dream,” suggesting that two kids, a wife and a good job aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. If the ground isn’t fresh, at least the relationship dynamics are believable and the dialogue is sharply funny, when not performing banal moral and spiritual analyses that is. In its struggle between edgy and heartfelt, I Think I Love My Wife is entertaining within the former and patronising otherwise. Plus: director’s commentary.