OUT 163(FLICK BITZ)

I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE CHRIS ROCK STARS AS A HUSBAND WITH A

WANDERING EYE

As the writer, director and star of I Think I Love My Wife, Chris Rock brings us a comical but straightforward story about a man with the perfect marriage, beautiful wife and fantastic children, who has one little problem: he can’t help but fantasize about having nearly ever woman he sees. Still, it’s only a fantasy. Just how much is Richard Cooper willing to risk when temptation comes after him? After all, he really does love his wife; at least he thinks he does.

This is story about the hot-button topics of marriage, fidelity and the battle of the sexes. Rock’s love triangle co-stars are Kerry Washington (Ray, The Last King of Scotland ) as the tempting seductress and Gina Torres (Alias, The Shield) as his wonderful wife. I Think I Love My Wife is scheduled for release from Fox Searchlight on March 16th.

Regardless of being bored out of his suburban businessman’s mind, Richard (Rock) is a well-heeled investment banker as the sole black executive at the prestigious investment firm of Pupkin & Langford, who appears to have absolutely everything a man could dream of. He lives with his lovely schoolteacher wife, Brenda (Torres), of seven years who’s not about to let go of the man she loves and their two young children in the suburbs of New York City . But Richard has one hazardous disadvantage, a wandering eye.

No matter how much he loves his wife, he can’t help but see ridiculously gorgeous women everywhere he goes--on the train commuting to work, on the streets walking to work, at work, on his way home from work, everywhere. He just can’t seem to escape them, or the reminder they carry that a certain part of his life is over for good.
Despite his mischievous imagination, Richard never even considers cheating on his wife until one particular damsel provides a terribly tempting opportunity. This is the alluring, free-spirited, not to mention stunning Nikki Tru (Washington), the girlfriend of a friend of Richard’s from his long-past clubbing days, who appears at Richard’s office door one day looking for help finding a job, and looking very fine indeed. As Nikki and Richard start spending innocent afternoons together during Richard’s late lunches, their relationship gets more and more complicated by mutual attraction.

When Rock encountered Eric Rohmer’s internationally acclaimed original 1972 French cinema classic Chloe in the Afternoon, he knew that this film had captured a true classic on the subject of married life’s frustrations and temptations. It is the story of a happily married Parisian man who loved to daydream about other women but never even entertained the idea of actually being unfaithful, until his old acquaintance Chloe dropped by his office and began to seduce him. Rock thought it would be interesting to do the same and was struck with a typically irreverent thought: why not transform this serious French story of human foibles and moral dilemmas into an edgier American comedy?

“I like to find things that aren’t that funny and then make them funny,” comments Rock. Therefore, this film was a chance not only to tell the humor-filled truth about the pitfalls and pratfalls of married life, but also an opportunity to shine a little ray of hope on the state of modern matrimony. “Marriage can be a beautiful, beautiful thing,” Rock muses. “Let’s root for love.”

While trying to bring a fresh comedic perspective to Rohmer’s tale, Rock turned to his frequent collaborator and fellow comedian Louis C.K., who, like Rock, is married with children and has a lot to say about the potential disasters that can come with that status.

“I sent Louis the Erich Rohmer movie, and he loved it,” remembers Rock. In fact, C.K. not only loved the movie but saw in it the potential for him and Rock to really go to town with a subject close to both their savagely funny minds. “This was a great story for us because I think Chris and I both share certain realism about marriage. We know that it’s a mixture of hope and despair, a constant fluctuation between the two,” C.K. observes.

“It’s a subject that’s very universal and timeless. To me, I Think I love my Wife isn’t really about infidelity, it’s about testing one’s ability to stay with one of the toughest things in the world, which is marriage with kids. I think married people can look at this material and find a safe place to acknowledge the miseries of marriage and parenthood but laugh at it at the same time.”

In fact, both Rock and C.K. note that there haven’t been very many comedies geared to the current generation that tackle the touchier, more trouble-prone side of marriage. And yet, it is very much on people’s minds, especially as more and more young people become parents. “I think guys are starting to take a really long look at who they are as married men and as fathers,” says C.K.

“The idea of Chris being in a movie like this was really compelling. The character of Richard thinks he’s kind of got life figured out, but then this woman shows up and says ‘maybe you’re sort of dying early without realizing it. Maybe you’re not really living your life.’ It’s every married man’s biggest nightmare.

“People will always wonder not only whether the grass might be greener on the other side, but also, if maybe there’s some candy there, too! It’s human nature to be fascinated with whatever you don’t have. But I also think in any long-term relationship between husband and wife, people fall in and out of love several times and that’s what Richard and Brenda are going through in the film,” C.K. concludes.

Rock explains, “I always say that there are two types of guys who think about cheating. There are those who just hate the opposite sex, and it’s just a way of letting out their frustration. But then you’ve got guys who simply love women. They’re just always a sucker for a damsel in distress. And to me, that’s Richard Cooper.”

Yet even as Richard begins to falter at keeping Nikki at bay, he becomes more and more keenly aware of what’s at stake-the entire life he has created. “Richard definitely goes from being very selfish to figuring out what he wants in life and also seeing how his actions affect a lot of people,” Rock says.

Richard’s ultimate need to make a choice is what makes his predicament not only filled with hilarious circumstances but very real. “There’s no black or white in this situation,” he comments. “Hopefully when people walk out of the theater, there’s a debate that will continue over who he should be with.”

Rock is one of our generation’s strongest comedic voices. The Brooklyn-raised comedian has garnered three Emmy Awards, three Grammy® Awards, including a win this past year, has seen his former eponymous talk show become one of HBO’s highest-rated and most talked-about programs, and is co-creator and narrator of the acclaimed hit television series “Everybody Hates Chris,” now on the newly-formed CW network.

Rock made his directorial debut with Head of State, which opened number one at the box office. Rock starred as an unlikely Washington , D.C. alderman chosen to be a presidential nominee, while Bernie Mac portrayed Rock’s older brother who becomes his running mate. Rock also recently starred in both The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler, a remake of the 1974 classic, as well as in the box office hit Madagascar, featuring the voices of Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Stiller, Andy Richter, Jada Pinkett Smith, and David Schwimmer.

Rock’s feature film debut was in Beverly Hills Cop II with Eddie Murphy. He went on to write, create, star and produce the rap comedy CB4 in 1993, a satire of the world of hardcore rap, which opened #1 at the box office. Other film credits include Boomerang, with Eddie Murphy; Panther, a drama spotlighting the lives of the 60’s activist group The Black Panthers, directed by Mario Van Peebles; New Jack City with Wesley Snipes (a film marking Rock’s dramatic debut as a desperate crack addict); and I’m Gonna Get You Sucka! with Keenen Ivory Wayans. The summer of 1998 saw Chris Rock co-star in two $100-million-plus grossing films: Lethal Weapon 4 and Dr. Dolittle. Rock starred in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, which also featured Ben Affleck, Salma Hayek and Matt Damon.

Rock went on to host the acclaimed “Chris Rock Show,” which began airing

on HBO in 1997. Rock and his popular talk show were honored with several Emmy nominations for writing and host and received an Emmy Award for Best Writing in 1999.

His next HBO stand-up special, “Bigger & Blacker,” taped on the stage of Harlem ’s fabled Apollo Theatre, earned three Emmy nominations for Rock, while the CD went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Spoken or Comedy Album. Rock’s most recent HBO special, Never Scared, aired in April 2004 and was nominated for two Emmys. The CD also earned the Grammy for Best Comedy Album.

In 2003, Rock embarked on his North American stand-up tour, entitled the “Black Ambition Tour” that ran in 64 cities with over 80 shows through March of 2004. Rock hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 2003, as well as the 77th Annual Academy Awards in 2005.

I Think I Love my Wife is written by Chris Rock and Louis C.K. (HBO’s “Lucky Louie”), based on Eric Rohmer’s French cinema classic about the temptations of married life, Chloe in the Afternoon. Directed by and starring Chris Rock, the film also stars Kerry Washington and Gina Torres. The producers are Chris Rock and Lisa Stewart (Almost Famous, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) and the executive producers are Adam Brightman (Fur, Two Family House) and Ronnie Screwvala (The Namesake).