Reviewed by Prof Joel White Film: Think Like a Man
Cast: Michael Ely, Regina Hall, Terrence J, Kevin Hart, Jerry Ferrara, Romany Malco, Meagan Good, Tarraji P. Henson, Gabrielle Union, Gwen Yeager, Caleel Harris.
Director: Tom Story
Type of film: Romantic Comedy
Age restriction: Adults only
It is often said and if it is true that coming events cast their shadows before them. Students and commentators of the changing relationships between men and women will have cause to refer students to this most unusual film.
Simultaneously tackling the two most vital questions, which will increasingly dominate the thinning of both the “man-on-the-street” as well as social scientists, the film “Think Like a Man” wisely plods a humourous route to get its highly important message across.
Highly significant, and wisely done, was the choice of the setting for this looking into the future film. The film’s setting not for one minute to be ignored, snug on the West Coast of America, 5 000 km distant from its only rival, New York, and home to the all important cinema industry, California preens itself and wallows in the influence exerted by Los Angeles and San Francisco. And the “I’ll take any dare”: Hollywood.
Treading heavily on the future, we meet six unmarried, mixed race friends, each of whom is warily plodding a course, which they hope will include prosperity and, maybe, a wife to go with it. The women all black, wily and experienced take their men to say the least with a grain of salt.
They have been around; have had the course. Their motto could well be described: “Show me: put up or Shut Up.”
The film is based on the recent, sensational bestseller “Act Like a Lady, Think like a Man,” written by Steve Harvey, who chose to take a small part in the film.
Remarkably, for its genre, the film is without a smidgen of bad language, nudity or sex. That can be taken as a tribute to the genius and ingenuity of its makers, in getting their most valuable message across.
And the message the film sends to all men, about women: “They don’t know that we know that they know all our moves.”