You want to believe that Stella and Winston have as good a chance at happily-ever-after as any couple. Goldberg delivers a hilarious performance as Stella's best friend, a foul-mouth, mischievous and horny New York window dresser who would like nothing more than for Stella to let her hair down. It's a fun movie - full of laughs and touching moments. To its credit, "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" plunges right into the difficulties of keeping a relationship going between a woman and man who's young enough to be her son. The engaging and talented Bassett must work out like a maniac she has a body that makes it easy to believe in Winston's desire for her. It's a woman's fantasy film that allows us girls to imagine ourselves instead of Bassett soaping Winston's back in the shower. His winning smile and, oh yes, that body, lure you in along with Stella. This is his feature film debut, but he performed in the Tony-winning Broadway production of "Rent." Here, he manages to hold his own opposite Bassett. "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" is sure to resonate among middle-aged women who are tired of the sparse pickings of available and appealing men.ĭiggs is indeed enchanting to watch on the screen. Unlike the awkward and out-of-shape men in the Full Monty who had no illusions about their seductive qualities, Buddy thinks he's got the vibe going and he aims it straight at Stella.īut "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" is much kinder to men than "Waiting to Exhale," which resonated among the women of the world who've endured years of wrong doing by obtuse men.ĭespite his youth, Winston has more to offer than his seasoned competition, particularly a chiseled body and a sensitive quality. You get the comic scene of Buddy (Barry "Shabaka" Henley), an ex-professional football player baring his chest and thrusting his hips to a funky beat at a dance party. With a movie based on the novel of the same title by Terry McMillan, the author who brought us "Waiting to Exhale" (she collaborated on both screenplays with Ron Bass), you half expect to see humorous trashing of men who think the world of themselves and what they have to offer women - particularly fine women - despite the tires around their waists and the gold rimming their teeth.Īnd you are not disappointed. He is a biology graduate who postponed medical school to find his passion in life. Winston Shakespeare (the name is a bit over the top) played by Taye Diggs, is the younger man who chips the rust off her heart. On the spur of the moment she decides to take a trip to Jamaica with her best friend, Delilah ( Whoopi Goldberg), and slowly we see Stella get her groove back as she drops convention and chooses instead to follow her heart. She has lost the spark of spontaneity and has forgotten how to have fun. Stella is a divorcee, devoted single mother and successful investment broker whose spirit seems crushed under the weight of responsibilities. In "How Stella Got Her Grove Back," we watch Angela Bassett as the lead character, a woman trying to put pleasure back in her duty-driven life, fall in love with a Jamaican man 20 years her junior, struggle with her own notions of love with a younger man, only to endure searing commentary from her family. At the very least she'll be called a cradle robber, at worst she will seem a slut or tramp. But when a woman in her 40s finds herself drawn to a 20-year-old man, she risks condemnation.
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