If you're looking for romance, look no further, because we've got it right here.  Something New may be new, but it's also classic.  Girl meets boy, girl breaks up with boy... 

Our heroine in search of love is Kenya McQueen (Sanaa Lathan).  Upper class, overachieving black CPA, she's up for partner in her firm, but her personal life is as bleak as the garden out back of her sleek new house.  

She's looking for the Ideal Black Male, so when a friend sets her up on a blind date and the date turns out to be white, that first meeting with Brian Kelly (Simon Baker) lasts about five minutes.  But when she meets Brian again and learns that he's a landscape architect, she hires him to redo the disaster out back. 

Brian is totally not what she's looking for, and not what she thinks she wants.  He is, however, attractive and adorable, even if he does come complete with a grinning dog, and a woman as uptight as Kenya of course wants nothing to do with a dog.  (I found it almost gilding the lily to give Brian a Golden Retriever - Brian IS a Golden Retriever!  Just a big ol' easy-going undemanding bucket-o-love!)

Of course, Kenya gradually warms up to Brian, and the next thing you know, they're hiking.  (See what I mean about Brian being a Golden Retriever?  Same dynamic when you get a dog - you think you're this sedentary intellectual, but when this beautiful loving creature is beaming at you the thought, "Let's go for a walk!  It'll be fun!", you find yourself putting on your walking shoes.)

Romance blossoms.  It's not all roses.  Reactions from friends and family are... mixed.  This is very much Kenya's story, and Brian is the catalyst figure - we don't get anything about what Brian's friends and family think of the relationship, I guess because it's not considered relevant.  It's Kenya's 'character arc' that the story is all about.

While the story is specifically about a black girl deciding whether or not to have a relationship with a white boy, it makes more global points about expanding your horizons.   It makes it easier that both characters are gorgeous and well-educated; Brian made a choice to abandon a law career for the landscaping life. 

Of course, no movie romance is smooth sailing.  Kenya and Brian  break up, and lo and behold, Kenya meets the Ideal Black Male, upwardly mobile legal striver Mark (Blair Underwood).  They can be all Type A together, cosying up on the sofa with their matching laptops.   So she's got what she thought she wanted. 

So she ends up with Mark the Ideal Black Male?  Come on, what do you think? 

Something New has been described as a great date movie.  It would also make a great evening with the girls movie.  Or a home with the dog and a pint of Haagen Daz movie.

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