Waiting To Exhale

Had there been no Million Man March, this movie alone might have prompted one. If there's an African-American male here who isn't a sneaky, two-timing, narcissistic, wallet-stealing, white-woman-dating, dope-taking, bad-in-bed, sorry son of a bitch, we missed him: He must have been hiding in some closet, behind all those fabulous clothes. Forest Whitaker's adaptation of Terry McMillan's best-selling novel is more about gender than race, and it comes uncomfortably close to pinning the blame for all the troubles of black women on black men. Four genuinely charismatic actresses (Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Lela Rochon, and Loretta Devine) play close friends whose...