Should black women turn to white guys for love? Sanaa Hamri's Something New attempts to answer that question and many others. Along with interracial love, the film also attempts to tackle corporate racism and racial politics in the upper-class black community. But in dealing with all these issues, the problems with the movie come from one direct source: the two leads.

Kenya McQueen (Sanaa Lathan) is a corporate lawyer looking for love - with a black man. Brian Kelly (Simon Baker) is a gardener who, through a job at Kenya's garden, becomes interested in Kenya herself. The problem is, Brian is white. Can a black woman and a white man from different backgrounds find love? Sure they can, but not these two.

Hey, she's got more on her mind than a man. She's got racism at her job, a shady brother (Donald Fasion) and a pushy mother (Alfre Woodward) to worry about as well. These extra angles, while maybe important to McQueen's personality, seem to weigh the plot down. The solution would be to simply cut the family down to a couple of scenes and try to tie the racism at her job in with the already-uncomfortable possibility of being outed for dating a white man. On second thought, dump the romance part and turn this into a remake of Working Girl, with racial politics added in.

Stuffy plot aside, the film does create a little tension with Blair Underwood's Mark, who is referred to Kenya by her family, who secretly would prefer a marriage to a black man. Underwood, who displays a good range of acting skills with the right script, is given nothing to do except to distract from her true calling of being with Baker. But the Kriss Turner screenplay doesn't give him anything else. Simon Baker's Brian is pretty, and Underwood's Mark is pretty, and that's about the only thing these two have in common with Lathan's McQueen.

One issue that black women have never been able to discuss without a "Hell No!" in response is whether the man they are attracted to, white or not, is the man inside and not the man outside. Hamri gives several shots of Baker's strong arms and tight frame to lure viewers into the notion that a white man is as hot as a black man. If they changed the Simon to Pegg rather than Baker (better known for his role in Shaun Of The Dead), I'm sure Lathan's character would have simply paid for his duties and wiped his name clear from her mind.