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Review by: Katherine Kaminsky | Rating:
One
DVD FEATURES: None listed
BROWN Sugar begins with a collection of interviews with rap artists,
talking about their favourite songs, and who has inspired them.
Yet this merely lulls you into a false sense of security, as
you imagine you are about to be taken on a trip down memory lane.
Sadly, you're not and the interesting bit stops here.
Dre (Taye Diggs) and Sidney (Sanaa Lathan) are lifelong friends
who share a love for hip-hop.
Fifteen years on, she is a music critic and he is a music executive.
The night before Dre's wedding, they kiss for the first time,
and both are made aware that perhaps their relationship is more
than just friends.
Dre goes ahead and marries Reese (Nicole Ari Parker), a lawyer,
and Sidney gets involved with a famous basketball player, Kelby
(Boris Kodjoe).
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But Dre feels the music company he works for has sold out, especially
when they sign two caricature rappers, named Ren and Ten.
His fears are confirmed when he tries to sign a talent he sees
rapping in a club, but Chris (Mos Def) refuses Dre's offer, due
to his deep convictions about staying true to the music he loves.
This provokes Dre to return to a purer way of making music and
he sets up his own label.
Reese, understandably upset that Dre has discussed this decision
with old friend, Sidney, before telling her, finds herself battling
against their close friendship and literally fighting for her
marriage in an amusing boxing sequence at the gym.
Meanwhile, Sidney is finding it hard to commit to Kelby, as he
shows little interest in her writing career.
Dre then signs Chris, who we discover is driving a yellow cab
for a living, and embarks on solely representing and pushing his
rapping career.
Brown Sugar is the type of film in which the cast look great,
as do the clothes, and the designer apartments, but the only thing
lacking is the script.
It drags you through every predictable scene, laboriously.
The best thing happening in Brown Sugar is Mos Def as the rapping
cabby, you won't watch anyone else in any scene he is in.
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