Two Can Play That Game Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)September 12th, 2001
TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Shante Smith is a woman with a program -- a ten-day program to get her man back. Vivica A. Fox, who has had the bad luck to be in some pretty miserable movies, including IDLE HANDS and BOOTY CALL, as well as an occasional winner like INDEPENDENCE DAY, plays Shante with a wonderfully compelling mixture of comedic verve and rock solid self-assurance. Morris Chestnut (THE BEST MAN), who is almost as handsome as Fox is beautiful, plays Shante's man, Keith. Both are successful professionals: Shante, an ad exec, and Keith, a lawyer.
Shante spends most of the time talking directly to us to explain her program, which she does with a winning smile that's hard to resist. Sometimes she shares advice with her girlfriends, Diedre (Mo'Nique), Karen (Wendy Raquel Robinson) and Tracye (Tamala Jones). "A man is like a stray dog," Shante tells Karen, who is having some man troubles of her own. "You feed him. If he comes back, he's hooked." Generally optimistic and unflappable, she doesn't abide other women enticing her man, as does the fetchingly attractive Conny Spaulding (Gabrielle Union, BRING IT ON). Shante allows as how, "Every gal's got a little 'ho in her," but Shante thinks that there's too much of it in Conny.
Even if writer/director Mark Brown's TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME is rather like a sitcom, it is like a really good sitcom. Think "Friends." The characters are all so likeable that you feel sorry to see them leave when the ending credits roll. One of the movie's small jokes is the flagrant product placements, which could be considered the sitcom's commercial breaks. The movie's look, however, from the lush cinematography to the colorful clothing is head and shoulders above anything you would expect to find on television.
Although this is Fox's film, the rest of the cast is superb. Her counterpart in the love strategy game is Keith's friend and coworker, Tony (Anthony Anderson). Like a boxing manager, he whispers every move into Keith's ear. "Energy is neither lost nor destroyed," Tony tells Keith, applying physics to love. "It is merely transferred from one person to the next." All Keith needs to do is to learn how to properly channel Shante's energy, and Shante has enough energy to power a small nuclear reactor. You'll be pretty charged up too after watching TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME. It is an upbeat film with a wonderfully sweet sense of humor.
TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME runs a fast 1:42. It is rated R for "language including sexual dialogue," and would be acceptable for most teenagers.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.
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