''I Think I Love My Wife'' is a 2007 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...

film starring

Chris Rock Christopher Julius Rock (born February 7, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and filmmaker. Known for his work in comic film, television and stage, he has received multiple accolades, including three Grammy Awards for best come ...

Gina Torres Gina Torres (born April 25, 1969) is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Zoe Washburne in the science fiction series ''Firefly'' (2002–2003) and its feature film sequel '' Serenity'' (2005), and as Jessica Pearson in th ...

and

Kerry Washington Kerry Marisa Washington (born January 31, 1977) SidebarCertificate of Live Birth: Isabelle Amarachi Asomugha(County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health). Gives Kerry Washington birth dateArchivedfrom the original on May 2, 2016.Note: Fi ...

. Rock co-wrote the film with Louis C.K. and also directed and produced it. It is a

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the sam ...

of the 1972 French film '' Love in the Afternoon'' by

Éric Rohmer Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher. Rohmer was the last of the post-World ...

."In brief: Chris Rock to direct Rohmer remake"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

''. May 15, 2006.

Plot

Richard Cooper is a happily married and successful man. He is content with his home life in suburban New York with his lovely wife Brenda, a teacher, and his two young children. There is one problem in his marriage: their sex life has stagnated, leaving Richard frustrated and sex-starved. While at work, he occasionally fantasizes about other women, but never acts upon his impulses. An encounter with an attractive old friend, Nikki Tru, suddenly casts doubt over his typically resilient self-control. At first she claims to just want to be his friend, but she begins to show up consistently at his Manhattan financial office just to talk or have lunch, which causes his boss, secretaries, and peers to view him with varying degrees of contempt. When Nikki begins to deliberately seduce Richard, he does not know what to do. Against his better judgment, he flies with her out of town for one day on an errand, where he is beaten by her boyfriend. On the way home, Nikki kisses Richard who stops it quickly. Returning to New York, he returns too late to make a sales presentation at an important business meeting, causing the loss of a lucrative contract and almost his job in the process. Richard reluctantly pursues Nikki still, but when tensions are deep with a suspicious Brenda, he breaks things off with her. Things slowly improve in Richard's usual routine and love life. Months later, Nikki shows up at his office unannounced. Having lunch, Richard learns that she is currently engaged to another successful man, and of her realization that she's getting older. Nikki later admits she's not in love with him and that she refuses to settle. Telling Richard that the two of them would be very happy together, he says regardless of his desires, his life isn't about what he wants. Hearing this, Nikki says she and her fiancé are set to move to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, with Nikki asking Richard to come to her apartment later to say a "proper goodbye". The morning of, he is conflicted. When he gets to Nikki's apartment, he finds her in her underwear in her bathroom. In the moments before Richard is about to consummate his attraction to Nikki, he realizes how grave the loss of his wife and children would be, so he walks out on Nikki, musing that you can't choose who you love in life, but you can choose how you love. Richard returns home, surprising his wife, and they begin to rebuild a genuine rapport, with the possibility of good things to come.

Cast

as Richard Cooper *

as Brenda Cooper *

as Nikki Tru *

Steve Buscemi Steven Vincent Buscemi ( ,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself, some may insist that his pronunciation of his own name is "wrong" because it does not match the original Italian pronunciation as well. It is not uncommon for people to pronou ...

as George *

Edward Herrmann Edward Kirk Herrmann (July 21, 1943 – December 31, 2014) was an American actor, director, and writer. He was perhaps best known for his portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the miniseries ''Eleanor and Franklin'' (1976) and 1982 film ...

as Mr. Landis *

Adam LeFevre Adam LeFevre (born August 11, 1950) is an American character actor, poet, and playwright who works in cinema, television, theater and commercials. Biography LeFevre was born in Albany, New York, the son of Helen (née Rhodes), a hospital patient ...

as Maitre'd * Welker White as Tracy *Samantha Ivers as Mary * Michael K. Williams as Teddy *

Orlando Jones Orlando Jones (born April 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is known for being one of the original cast members of the sketch comedy series '' MADtv'', for his role as the 7 Up spokesman from 1999 to 2002, and for his role ...

as Nelson * Eva Pigford as Hope *Cassandra Freeman as Jennifer * Stephen A. Smith as Allan *

James Saito James Tomio Saito (born March 6, 1955) is a Japanese-American actor of stage, motion pictures, and television. Saito is best known as the original Shredder in ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', Dr. Chen in the ABC series ''Eli Stone'', Harry Kim i ...

as Mr. Yuni * Wendell Pierce as Sean *Milan Howard as Kelly Cooper * Roz Ryan as Landlady * Christina Vidal as Candy * Eliza Coupe as Lisa * GQ as White Rapper *

Stephanie D'Abruzzo Stephanie Ann D'Abruzzo (; born December 7, 1971) is an American actress, puppeteer and singer. She has performed various Muppets in the TV program ''Sesame Street''. She held starring roles on '' Oobi'' and ''The Book of Pooh''. She was one of ...

as Cafe Entertainer (uncredited)

Production

Charles Stone III was slated to direct but dropped out. This is the second time Rock and Washington have been paired on screen. Previously they were in ''

Bad Company Bad Company are an English rock supergroup that was formed in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bassist Boz Burrell. Bad Company ''AllMusic'' Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, a ...

'', playing a couple.

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

-based UTV Motion Pictures made its entry into the American market by co-producing the film. Rocks' character works at the firm of Pupkin & Langford, a reference to the 1982 film ''The King of Comedy''.

Reception

''I Think I Love My Wife'' received generally negative reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported a 19% approval rating, based on 105 critical reviews with the consensus "Chris Rock's comedic instincts are muted and the female characters are unsatisfactorily drawn in this uneven sex farce/domestic drama mashup."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reported that critics rated the film 49/100 based on 30 reviews. It grossed $5 million on its opening weekend, reaching #5. The film grossed a worldwide total of $13 million.

DVD release and sales

The DVD was released on August 7, 2007, selling 214,778 units in the first week. At an aggregate, 863,437 units were sold which translated to revenue of $13,527,427.

References

External links

* * * * {{Louis C.K. 2007 films 2007 romantic comedy films American romantic comedy films 2000s English-language films Fox Searchlight Pictures films American remakes of French films Films directed by Chris Rock Films with screenplays by Louis C.K. Films with screenplays by Chris Rock Films produced by Chris Rock UTV Motion Pictures films Éric Rohmer 2000s American films