The Film

Chris Rock, where have you gone? After his abysmal Oscar hosting attempt, Chris Rock seems to have run dry, creatively speaking. Everybody Hates Chris is entertaining enough, but where’s the foul-mouthed, socially witty comedian that used to be on top of the stand up game? I Think I Love My Wife is Rock’s attempt at a broader, more serious comedy but I feel like Chris doing what he does best would have produced more socially conscious tidbits than this forced effort.

Let me get this out of the way first: Chris Rock is funny. Chris Rock can make me laugh in literally everything he does, at least at some point in the material. This film is no different. It is not devoid of laughs, it is just a paltry attempt considering the talent that we’ve seen come from Rock. In I Think I Love My Wife Rock plays Richard Cooper, a NYC investment banker who lives in the suburbs with his wife, Brenda (Gina Torres of Firefly), and two children. They have hit that slump in their marriage where they are going through the motions and not enjoying themselves anymore, i.e. not having sex. It’s like Mr. and Mrs. Smith before they beat each other up. Needless to say, Richard is plagued with daydreams and other temptations that are only exacerbated when the ex of one of his friends, Nikki, shows up. She is everything Richard has been daydreaming about wrapped up into one package. Bored with life at home, Richard begins hanging out with Nikki, unaware that everyone else begins to think he is having an affair.

I Think I Love My Wife tries to walk the difficult dramedy genre line but can’t seem to nail the beats. It is too serious to be a gut-bursting affair, but too juvenile to be anything worthy discussion post-viewing. Most disappointing of all is that the comedy is wholly unoriginal and lacking of any of the qualities that made Rock so entertaining through the years.

The DVD

The video is presented in both 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 Full Frame on a …wait for it…double-sided disc! Are you kidding me? I can’t believe they still make these, but I digress. My screener copy had plenty of video noise and grain, so the picture is hard to judge. It seemed bland, without any particular aspect being too impressive.

The audio is offered in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Spanish Surround with English/Spanish subtitles. The film is very dialogue-heavy but the sound elements are balanced so you won’t have any trouble hearing the bad jokes.
The Extras

Commentary is offered by multi-hyphenate Chris Rock. It’s all in good fun when Rock is joking around, but when he tries to discuss filmmaking the results are quite boring.

A 10-minute “Making Of” featurette touches on all the usual EPK topics like characters, plot, etc.

13 Deleted Scenes running 11 minutes are offered as well as Outtakes. Neither are very interesting.

The 10-minute “Fox Movie Channel” featurette rehashes everything from the “Making Of” featurette and just wastes space on the disc.

Final Thoughts

I Think I Love My Wife is mediocre in every way. Even Chris Rock fans should think twice about anything other than a rental. – Jeff Ritchie