Spike Lee’s “She Hate Me” might be the craziest movie made by a well-regarded filmmaker since … well, since “Bamboozled,” Spike Lee’s broadside about racial images in entertainment.
“She Hate Me” is a mess, although I will confess up front that it’s the kind of mess that has its share of weird, even entertaining, moments. But don’t take that as a recommendation. I don’t want anybody’s $9 ticket price on my head for this one.
The lunatic plot has a successful young businessman, Jack Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), getting caught in a scandal at his biotech firm. He tries to blow the whistle on wrongdoers, which leads to his getting fired and accused of ethics violations.
Out of nowhere, his ex-girlfriend (Kerry Washington), now a confirmed lesbian, shows up at his apartment door. She and her new companion both want to be impregnated. By Jack.
Well, they say the family that plays together stays together. Soon, the ex has Jack lined up with a bevy of lesbians, all wanting babies, all willing to hit the sack with Jack.
His bank account has been seized, so Jack needs the cash these women can give him. But the money is the only reminder we get of the corporate-fraud plot for long stretches of sexy screen time.
I don’t know how to describe the rest of the movie, except to say that it ranges over multiple characters.
There’s Jack’s bickering parents (Jim Brown and Lonette McKee); a mafioso (John Turturro) fond of quoting “The Godfather”; and Jack’s colleague (Q-Tip, who has a series of scenes that would be genuinely funny if they felt connected to the rest of the sprawling movie).
Well-known actors fill out small roles, such as Woody Harrelson and Ellen Barkin as Jack’s bosses, Brian Dennehy as a senator and “Matrix” babe Monica Bellucci as the mobster’s daughter. Only Kerry Washington makes a strong impression; leading man Anthony Mackie looks overwhelmed.
Eventually Jack’s case comes to the U.S. Senate, a completely unbelievable sequence using Perry Mason-like theatrics. You might not think that “She Hate Me” could get more bizarre than that, but I assure you it can.
Lee does his share of characteristic hectoring – always the weakest part of his uneven talent – and humor, which rescues some scenes. At the end of two-hours-plus of this misguided nonsense, you can’t help staring at the screen in sheer disbelief.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
