THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040030
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
GUYS HAD BEST put on their jock straps and run for the hills.
On the same day that Lorena Bobbitt was released, a ``A Thin Line Between Love and Hate,'' a new version of the ``Fatal Attraction'' plot, was unleashed in theaters.
Just when you thought it was safe to date again, along comes Lynn Whitfield to replace Glenn Close as the woman who is ready to boil your rabbit. And she has a knife! Yikes.
The ``line'' of the title is so thin that audiences may well be perplexed as whether to laugh or recoil. The fact that Martin Lawrence, Norfolk's most famous bridegroom, is the star suggests that this was meant to be a comedy. Naughty Martin reinforces the idea by talking dirty, mugging and grinning a great deal, but in the first half of the film, he's such a male chauvinist pig that even guys may think he's gone too far.
Lawrence plays Darnell Wright, an aggressive playboy who has plans to ``hit'' every attractive woman he meets. He gets put down by socialite Brandi Web, played by the stunning Lynn Whitfeld. She snubs him until he resorts to, disastrously, using the big word - L-O-V-E.
He lives to regret it. Mia, the good girl in his life (Regina King) returns from the Air Force and he eventually learns that he'd rather play basketball with her than hang out at museums and snooty cocktail parties with Brandi.
Brandi tracks Darnell down and vandalizes his apartment and car. When this only convinces him that she's not the girl for him, she plans to kill him. This is a comedy?
We only find relief when Della Reese occasionally visits as Darnell's raucous mom. She seems to be the only exclusively comic character in the film.
Whitfield is scarily real, reinforcing the striking impression she made in her Emmy-winning performance in TV's ``The Josephine Baker Story.'' In a role that was originally offered to Angela Bassett, Whitfield is wise enough to play it straight all the way, letting others go for the laughs. She's an excellent femme fatale and deserves more star billing.
In the supporting cast, watch for Bobby Brown as Lawrence's best friend. Bobby is more famous off screen as Whitney Houston's headline-making husband. There are indications here that he really could be an actor.
Lawrence made headlines when he married a local girl in a downtown Norfolk hotel - drawing crowds of onlookers. This movie, which he directed, co-wrote and produced, is an indication that he wants to tackle subjects beyond the 'hood.
While a captivating personality and the natural successor to Eddie Murphy as everyone's favorite naughty boy, he is not yet a director. His film wavers back and forth. It could have been chilling thriller. It could have been a hilarious spoof. As it is, it is neither.
``A Thin Line Between Love and Hate'' is an audacious and ambitious film that is interesting to watch because you not only wonder how far it will go but in which direction it will head. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by C. HELCEMANAS-BENGE /New Line Cinema
Regina King plays the good girl in the life of playboy Darnell
Wright (Martin Lawrence), whose dalliances lead to danger.
MOVIE REVIEW
``A Thin Line Between Love and Hate''
Cast: Martin Lawrence, Lynn Whitfield, Regina King, Bobby Brown,
Della Reese
Director and writer: Martin Lawrence
MPAA rating: R (language, partial nudity, sexual situations)
Mal's rating: 2 stars
Locations: Cinemark, Greenbrier 13 in Chesapeake; Circle 4, Main
Gate in Norfolk; Kemps River, Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke in Virginia
Beach
by CNB