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After almost seven years of married life, Richard Cooper (Chris Rock) is bored. His wife, Brenda (Gina Torres) is a wonderful woman—and a great mother to their two cute kids—but life isn’t nearly as exciting as it used to be. So Richard finds himself thinking about other women all the time. He watches them as he takes the train to and from work. He takes a late lunch every day so he can watch them on the streets. And it helps. A little bit.
One day, Nikki Tru (Kerry Washington) shows up in Richard’s office. It’s been years since Richard last saw Nikki—who dated one of his friends for a while before breaking up with him and causing him to attempt suicide. But Nikki hasn’t changed a bit. She’s every bit as gorgeous as she was the last time he saw her. And with her, she brings all the fun and excitement that Richard’s life is lacking.
Soon, Nikki’s a regular fixture at the office. She’s stopping by to take Richard out for lunch. Or she decides to leave her boyfriend, and she needs help looking at apartments. Or she needs help moving out. Or she just needs to talk. Before long, Richard’s gorgeous single friend is occupying most of his time—and both his job and his marriage are suffering. He convinces himself that they’re just friends, ignoring the fact that Nikki has him wrapped around her finger—and it’s only a matter of time until she wants more.
Okay…let’s play a little game. First, take your least favorite episode of Everybody Loves Raymond (preferably one in which Ray does something really, really stupid), and stretch it out to 90 minutes long. Now take away the overbearing family, add lots of swearing, and replace Ray Romano with Chris Rock. The result is I Think I Love My Wife.
Though the movie does have a few funny moments (most of which you’ve probably already seen in the trailer), you won’t find a lot of surprises here—mostly just bad acting and aggravating characters. Nikki is a shameless user who always gets what she wants, and Richard is so weak and stupid that you’ll want to smack him upside the head. It’s pretty much impossible to find anything really likeable about either character. And Rock’s stiff performance doesn’t help, either.
While you may get a laugh or two out of I Think I Love My Wife, the grating characters and the movie’s overall grim view of marriage spoil most of the fun. So if you want to watch a comedy about the perils of marriage, turn on the TV and find an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond instead. At least it’ll only take a half hour of your time.
