I Think I Love My Wife

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I Think I Love My Wife
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	Chris Rock
Produced by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Written by	Louis C.K. Chris Rock
Starring	Chris Rock Kerry Washington Gina Torres Steve Buscemi
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s)	March 16, 2007 (USA)
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

I Think I Love My Wife is a 2007 film directed by and starring Chris Rock. It is a remake of the 1972 French film, Love in the Afternoon by Éric Rohmer. Rock also co-wrote the screenplay with Louis C.K..

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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Richard Cooper (Chris Rock) is getting dressed and ready for work. He plays with his daughter Kelly (Milan Howard) and talks to his wife, Brenda (Gina Torres). His voice over says he is happily married, but is bored out of his mind! Every time he tries to have sex with his wife, she gives him several excuses as to why she doesn't want to. They go to a marriage counselor where Richard makes a comment about her underwear being large. They argue about not having sex, and him being insensitive, etc. The Coopers live in Westchester County, New York.

The next day he's on the Metro-North Railroad south towards Grand Central Terminal on his way to work and he checks out several women on the train and wonders what another woman would be like. He arrives at his firm, near Bryant Park in the Times Square area, where is a successful investment banker where he is the only black person there other than the janitors. One of them (Bambadjan Bamba) is rapping out loud on headphones. Richard skoots back to the back of the elevator and hides. His co-worker on his floor, George (Steve Buscemi), asks him to go to lunch and Richard declines because it is so crowded. He goes out for lunch at 2pm so he can check out other women in the city and he can shop on his break.

He goes to a clothing store, Saks Fifth Avenue and two saleswomen talk him into buying a green shirt instead of a blue one. They flirt a little, and he goes home.

Brenda asks him to help grade papers and notices that he went shopping and bought a green shirt. She said "I thought you didn't like blue." He replies that he is trying something new. His narrations tell us that he and Brenda get along fine, but they're still not having sex.

The next day at work, a girl named Nikki (Kerry Washington) shows up in his office. Nikki was an old friend who used to date one of Richard's friends, and now says that she lives in Uptown. Richard shows her around his office and shows her Brenda and his kids. She mentions that she moved away from her husband, Teddy (Michael K. Williams). She asks him for a reference so she can get a job, so Richard signs a letter and off she goes.

He goes home and doesn't tell his wife about Nikki. She calls him the next day and takes him out to lunch. At lunch, she asks him personal questions about having sex with his wife. He blows off the question, but she knows that they aren't having sex by the way he acts.

The next day Richard and Brenda are lingerie shopping in SoHo around the intersection of Prince Street and West Broadway, when they run into Nikki! Richard introduces them and tells her that Nikki used to date his old friend, Nelson.

At work, Nikki shows up again. Together they throw $1 bills out of the window and predict who picks them up on the street below. Richard admits that he actually had fun doing that. That night Brenda and Richard go out to eat with another married couple that is further evidence that Richard is bored because all they talk about are their kids.

Next day at work, Richard shows up at the office and all of his co-workers are staring at him. He walks in his office to find Nikki. They trade iPods so she can get him listening to a different kind of music. She claims that he has "nigga ears" and says that white people can make good music too. The song she makes him listen to is "Tired of You" by the Foo Fighters.

When he arrives at his office the next day, she is waiting on him in the lobby and the secretaries are all staring at her. She asks him to go to the city with her to help her find a place so she can move away from Teddy. He asks George to cover his scheduled conference call for him so he can go with her. George does. They go look at an apartment and the landlord puts Richard in an awkward situation when she says that bed probably won't fit the both of them. Then Richard explains that they're "just friends."

George confronts Richard the next day at work and tells him that he's going to jeopardize his marriage and home life by hanging out with Nikki everyday. Richard tells him that they are just friends, and not to say anything. He says he won't tell anyone, but to be careful. Richard goes out with Nikki to an import car show and has more fun with her.

He goes home and is blaring the music that Nikki gave him. Brenda asks him where all of her Usher and Marvin Gaye CDs are. He tells her that she has "nigga ears." She gets mad and brings up that fact that he doesn't answer his phone calls of text messages anymore. They argue for a second, and then make a date to do something different. He takes Brenda and the kids to the same car show that he and Nikki went with, while Brenda was looking at the minivans the whole time.

The next day in a conference meeting, Nikki's phone call interrupts him and asks him to go with her tomorrow to Teddy's apartment to get her stuff out, to which he agrees to, and returns to the meeting. That day, while in the cab, Nikki tells Richard that they're are going to Washington D.C. to get the stuff out. He gets mad at her for making him go with her out of state to get stuff out of an apartment. George calls him and tells him to get back to work to help him with another meeting. He lies to George and tells him that he's not with Nikki. They get to the apartment, which is in a rough neighborhood. While getting her stuff, Teddy comes in and beats Richard up. The cops show up and it is implied that Teddy is shot by the cops, though back in New York he listens to a news report that says that it was Teddy who shot the cops. On the way back, Nikki kisses Richard, but backs off after Richard moves away after initially kissing her back.

Richard tells George that he is running late and can't make the important meeting. George gets pissed and tells Richard that he hopes she's worth it. The important business guys walk out of the meeting when George tells them that Richard can't make it.

When he gets home, Brenda asks him why he is so bruised up. He makes up a story about getting in a fight in traffic. She knows he's lying, but forgets about it. As if things could get any worse, his boss puts him on "probation" because they lost the important clients because of him. If he causes anymore problems, he's fired. So for the next couple of weeks, he tells his secretaries to tell Nikki that he isn't there when she calls. He completely ignores her.

The next day he runs into Nelson at a record store. They get on the subject of Nikki and Nelson says that he saw her the other day and she mentioned that they were talking. Richard says that she comes by the office. Nelson tells him that he doesn't like running into her without his medicine, and if he sees her don't tell her that he talked to him.

Nikki doesn't call for the next couple of days. Richard feels guilty for some reason and calls her to take her out to lunch. She tells him to meet her at a club that night to make it up to her. He says that Brenda is cooking tonight and that he can't make it. She tells him to start a fight so he can leave.

At dinner that night, he starts a fight with Brenda claiming that he's tired of chicken. He says he's going out "to get some duck." He gets on the Metro-North railroad into the city and feels bad and contemplates returning to Brenda to apologize, but ends up going to the bar where he is supposed to meet Nikki, but she never shows. He ends up getting drunk and high with the two saleswomen from Saks. He dances and has a good time, but still no sign of Nikki.

At home, Brenda goes through all of Richard's stuff and finds Asian porn on his computer. She talks to one of her friends and she tells Brenda not to worry about it because he's probably walking by himself clearing his head.

At the bar, the bartender tells Richard that Nikki called and said she couldn't make it because she's going to a party in Miami with someone else. He gets home five hours later, and fights with Brenda. She suspects an affair and he tells her about being on probation at work, etc. She tells him not to let this happen again and to fix whatever is wrong with him. He apologizes, but she walks off. Richard calls Nikki the next day and leaves her a voice mail to leave him alone and not to call him or come see him.

The next day, George gives Richard some Viagra, telling him that Viagra will make his do his wife like he never has before. He takes George's advice. But when he gets home and takes the pill, Brenda is asleep. Richard tries to pass it off, but four hours later he is still erect. Richard gets scared and calls George in a panic. Brenda walks in on Richard talking to George about how he has been hard for four hours. He lets George go, and explains to his wife the situation. He ends up in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. The EMT tells Richard that she has to draw blood from his penis to get the erection to go down.

He doesn't look at women anymore, and goes to work. Nikki shows up and tells him over lunch that she is getting married. She pays for the check and they leave each other as friends. Richard and Brenda are doing things together now. They are with the marriage counselor and they say that things are getting better, but they're not having sex yet.

Richard meets Nikki's husband, a successful guy who happens to know Richard's boss. He invites Richard and his wife to look them up if they ever go to Malibu. Nikki says she wants to see him one more time before she leaves. She gives him an address to find her. For some reason, he agrees.

Things are back to normal at work. Afterwards, Richard buys condoms at a drug store. He goes to the address to meet Nikki. When he comes in, she's dressed in lingerie and seduces him. They get on the bed and are about to have sex, when Richard sees himself in a mirror. He looks at himself and thinks of his wife and kids. He runs out of the house and tells her he's sorry and that he can't do this.

He goes home to his wife and kids. The last scene is of Richard and Brenda sitting on the couch singing to each other in a Broadway type closing. Richard doesn't tell Brenda about almost having sex with Nikki but apologizes for everything else. Brenda comes out and asks "how come they don't fuck anymore?!?!" Richard tells her that she's the one that's been on strike. The camera pans out and everything is fine between Richard and his family. And of course, they lived happily ever after.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

Charles Stone III was slated to direct the film but dropped out of the project.[1]
Christina Milian is to record a new song for the soundtrack^{[citation needed]}.
The tagline "In marriage no one can hear you scream." is a spoof of the tagline from Alien: "In space no one can hear you scream."