Daily Trojan USC.edu

Issue date: 3/20/07 Section: Lifestyle

Media Credit: Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures Rock around the clock | Chris Rock's remake of Eric Rohmer's "Chloe in the Afternoon," in which he plays a man who flirts with infidelity when an old flame comes back into his life, expresses the comedian's intemperate comedic style.

A married man with a high-paying job tries to avoid sleeping with a sultry seductress.

Initially, the plotline for "I Think I Love My Wife" can be summed up in just 15 words. But Chris Rock goes beyond the classic issue of temptation by incorporating comedy, modernity and ethnicity into his remake of French filmmaker Eric Rohmer's 1972 picture, "Chloe in the Afternoon."

Similar to the original, Rock plays investment banker Richard Cooper, whose ideal yet unexciting marriage to wife Brenda (Gina Torres) is threatened when an old acquaintance, Nikki (Kerry Washington), re-enters his life.

As the story progresses, Richard finds it exceedingly difficult to fend off Nikki's advances, and he begins to tread the fine line between fidelity and adultery.

"Rock's doing Rohmer - it sounds like a joke," Rock said. "It's like a cover song. There's The Carpenters' 'Superstar' and there's Luther Vandross' 'Superstar.' They're both hit songs, and they have the same words, ­­but they're totally different pieces of art."

Rock's involvement as director, co-writer and star of the film ensured that he created a movie that was entirely his own, varying from Rohmer's film in both time and tone.

"The original's a masterpiece, but it's not a comedy," Rock said.

Rock's screenplay collaboration with fellow comedian and friend Louis C.K. (the creator of HBO's canceled sitcom "Lucky Louie") drew on both of their marital experiences, producing a script that often shines with moments of pure Chris Rock stand-up comedy.

"The more that came out of Chris' life, the better," C.K. said. "The goal was to make a film for Chris that was personal and would show who he is and how funny he is as a person."

By reflecting his true character, the movie inevitably integrates Rock's real and distinctive commentary on race. The jokes are delivered in his characteristic language, which sometimes features blunt word choices.

"It's just who I am - it's just what I go through kind of every day," Rock said, while recognizing how his language augments the movie's political undertones. "It's me. I'm an artist; I'm not censoring myself."

Washington, who said that the role of Nikki was one of her most challenging to date, supports this claim by noting that while Rock transformed as a filmmaker, he stayed true to himself.

"It's a much more mature Chris," Washington said. "(But at the same time) he's doing what he does on stage, talking about things that people don't usually talk about and attacking them in a way that's honest and yet charming and funny."

Luckily, this newfound maturity does not affect the movie's humor, with everything from child-rearing disagreements to sexual displeasure serving to underline the high and low points of marriage.

Unlike other films, however, "I Think I Love My Wife" maintains its balance by commentating without criticizing or blaming a specific sex.

"It's not so much a way to rant as it's a way to share," C.K. said. "In the best of marriages you have moments where you say, 'Well I think I love her. There's a lot of evidence that I love my wife, but God, I just don't know,' and of course women feel that way too."

This versatility exists not only between the sexes, but also within the inherent plotline.

"The movie's almost not even about a marriage," Rock said. "It's about addiction in a sense. You could replace the Nikki character and just make it cocaine and all the decisions are the same."

And while a good line may also have led Richard to skip work and lie to his wife, the conflict is far more understandable with the handpicked Washington playing his temptress.

"I wanted a fresh face, and Kerry's a really good actress and really attractive," Rock said. "A lot of the young actresses today just take off their clothes all the time. I wanted to have a woman on screen who, once she didn't have any clothes on, it would be an event."

The unsure, sensual, free-spirited Nikki stands in sharp contrast to Torres' older, more grounded motherly character, Brenda. Torres' natural class and experience adds to the character, but much of what she portrays is literally handed to her.

"It was all on the page - the script was so balanced," Torres said. "There really wasn't that much work that I had to do to fill in the blanks."

The film's setting is yet another piece of Rock's personality. The bustling streets of Manhattan and the quiet suburbs of New Jersey establish two different worlds in which the characters can interact and, for Rock, are quite literally close to home.

This style of drawing from the personal and everyday had already been realized in Rock's CW network sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris." But Rock says he didn't learn how well it translated onto the big screen until this latest film.

"I finally found a tone that works for me in movies," Rock said. "It's this realistic tone. I don't need a hyper-reality anymore. The real reality is where probably the best humor's going to work for me."

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