Patterns of Attraction

This is a romantic comedy is about young Black professionals and their ability to commit. The major players are skilled and attractive -- Paula Jai Parker, Omar Gooding, Trae Ireland, Tatiana Mariesa and Tiffany Haddish among them. The dialogue is realistic and well delivered and the characters are believable -- the guys are relucant to commit, the women want monogamous relationships.

Despite this I was less than thrilled. This is essentially a show in which everyone talks constantly and there is little physical motion. Almost every scene is set in a room in which people talk -- sometimes this is varied by having people talk on the telephone -- and there is no sense of place -- it could be in any large city. So there is little physical motion, which, while it probably reflects the lack of advancement in the relationships, makes for a visually dull motion picture, despite the handsome people, costumes and sets.

Director Grayson Stroud tries to compensate for this by frequent cuts, usually shifting from a medium close-up of one person in a conversation to the other. In addition, everyone is calm at all time. While it is clear that these are deeply felt issues, there is no sense any real emotional change, just a weary acceptance of an inevitable situation.

While I find the situations, dialogue and performances quite good, the dull handling of this movie as little more than a series of conversations leaves me dissatisfied.