30 Years to Life

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Vanessa Middleton's ensemble laffer '30 Years to Life" examines a group of African-American New Yorkers facing age 30.

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Its sleek veneer, smooth R&B soundtrack (by hip-hop producer Timbaland, doubling here as exec producer) and its focus on good-looking, successful, young black urban professionals place the production in a category with features like "Waiting to Exhale" and last year's gay foray into the same territory, "Punks," among others.

While these films undoubtedly help broaden the scope of black screen characters, they all represent fairly unadventurous filmmaking, especially in comparison with the New Black Cinema exponents that emerged in the 1980s and '90s, like Spike Lee, John Singleton and the Hughes brothers.

Unfolding over the course of a year in which the characters each cross the 30-year threshold, the comedy groups together an investment banker (Melissa De Sousa), whose terminally single status leads her to date the wrong guys; a standup comedian (Tracy Morgan), who's been the next Eddie Murphy for longer than he cares to remember; a commitment-phobic guy (T.E. Russell) and his increasingly impatient partner (Erika Alexander); a real estate agent (Paula Jai Parker) dealing with the lifelong stigma of a weight problem; and a handsome marketing exec (Allen Payne), whose fear of getting old prompts him to ditch his career and pursue modeling, and whose taste for sex without emotional attachment is beginning to seem flavorless.

Dialogue occasionally feels overloaded with relationship maxims. But despite its sitcommy feel, Middleton's polished writing and amusing observations about the anxieties most people encounter when definitively farewelling their youth help compensate for her standard-issue direction. Appealing cast members bring warmth and humor to their roles, and the characters are confidently steered toward satisfying conclusions of greater self-awareness and acceptance.

Camera (color), Cliff Charles; editor, Gershon Hinkson; music, Timbaland; production designer, Liba Daniels; art director, Dale Corvino; costume designer, Chasia Kwane; sound, Michelle De Chiara; associate producer, Andrew LeBlanc; line producer, Felice Schachter; casting, Winsome Sinclair. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (competing), Jan. 21, 2001. Running time: 103 MIN.