Taye Diggs had a nice little run for a while there. For a while, he was popping up in one of the featured roles of the latest "urban" film on a fairly regular basis. Probably because he was a pretty safe choice. A director knows they're always going to get the same thing with him when they need that pretty-boy nice guy. It's also a huge plus that he has genuine acting skills to go with the model looks.
So when it came time for another love story that we could relate to, of course Taye was called in once again. He and Sanaa Lathan made the just the perfect couple for "Brown Sugar". It was a different take on "When Harry Met Sally". Just envision that film with much less sarcasm and a lot more color.
It had been quite a while since a good Black love story had come around. The last one with major release prior to "Brown Sugar" would have been 1997's "Love Jones". I'm sure there were a good share of them that limped to a direct-to-dvd release, but we would have to wait a minute to get a good one in theaters again. Ironically, there was one other striking similarity between the two films: Both intertwined a pronounced metaphor into the ups and downs of the relationship of the main characters.
For "Brown Sugar", it was none only than hip-hop. Sydney (Lathan) was constantly referring to the first time she fell in love with hip-hop. She would ask it in every interview of every hip-hop artist she approached. She did want to know as part of her job, but we always knew that it was also her not-so-secretly pining for a deeper relationship with Dre (Diggs).
The flick also spoke volumes about the current state of hip-hop. The movie starts when Syd and Dre were kids in New York and we get to see them witnessing some of the legends of hip-hop as they freestyle on the streets of the city in the early-80s. As they grow older, so does the music they loved, but while they change for the better, the music starts changing for the worse. This becomes the most evident when the new act the Hip Hop Dalmations hit the scene.
The supporting cast gets a tremendous boost with the likes of Mos Def and others. As an aspiring rapper, Mos Def is a beacon in this film, taking a little shine from Diggs and Lathan. The scenes where he nervously tries to step to Syd's friend Francine (Queen Latifah) are priceless. Then there is Dre's unfaithful wife, Reese (Nicole Ari Parker) and Syd's temporary love interest, Kelby Dawson (Boris Kodjoe). I'm still trying to figure out if director Rick Famuyiwa intentionally put the two of them together in a certain scene and asked them to act so uncomfortably. Were they trying to get their flirt on as characters or they just couldn't help it because they're married in real life?
It is the chemistry between Diggs and Lathan that ultimately makes "Brown Sugar" work so well. They come across like they could genuinely be the best of friends. The best of friends that are able to take that friendship to the next level to make the perfect couple. The both of them portray it so convincingly that it comes thru the screen as a credible relationship. Maybe that blessing was also a curse because here we are in 2009 and we have yet to have another such movie that so eloquently expresses the beauty of Black love.
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