It stars Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker The screenplay by Kriss Turner focuses on interracial relationships and traditional African American family values and social customs.

The opinions of her girlfriends Cheryl, Nedra, and Suzette, her upper class parents Joyce and Edmond, and her womanizing younger brother Nelson begin to have a deleterious effect.

When the dissonance she's developed finally overwhelms her, Kenya chooses to reunite with Brian, no longer allowing her controlling nature and social norms to dictate matters of the heart.

Their easy, sensual rapport partly owes something to the generally sure hand of the film's director, Sanaa Hamri, making a fine feature debut, and something else, something indefinable, to the delectable mysteries of two bodies in cinematic motion.

"[4] Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times called the film "superficial and formulaic but pleasant enough to entertain and qualifies as intelligent and sophisticated by the current standard of Hollywood comedy."

He added, "The movie nicely captures the area around Baldwin Hills, is crisply written by Kriss Turner and portrays the upper-middle class black community seldom seen in mainstream TV and film.

"[5] Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "The trouble with the movie is that it sometimes seems at odds with itself, vacillating between a realistic presentation of the obstacles black professional women face finding a suitable mate and another bit of Hollywood fluff where their skin color is glossed over.

"[6] Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times graded the film B and commented, "I like the way Something New presents facets of African-American life seldom seen in mainstream movies, such as the formality and brief funkiness of a debutante cotillion ball, the affluent sophistication making such events important.

"[7] Brian Lowry of Variety observed, "Wispy at best, this romantic comedy from a first-time director and screenwriter feels as if whole chunks have been left on the cutting-room floor, with what remains mustering intermittent charm thanks to the attractiveness, if not chemistry, of Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker ... Perhaps the best thing the movie has going for it, actually, is that despite the title, there's really nothing new here at all; rather, the beats are so familiar the audience can fill in the gaps themselves.