A good man is hard to find if you're black, successful and live in Phoenix. Or so goes this female buddy picture based on Terry McMillan's 1992 novel. Like an all-girl slumber party, it's boisterous fun. But its relentless male-bashing grows tiresome long before the last male has been bashed.
Waiting follows the romantic fortunes of four pals from one New Year's Eve to the next. They are Houston, a never-wed TV producer; Bassett, a housewife whosebuppie husband pitches her for his white bookkeeper ("Would it be better if she was black?" he asks an enraged Bassett. "No, it would be better if you were black," she replies.); Rochon, a businesswoman who believes it when her married lover tells her he can't stay over because he's taking Mama to church in the morning; and Devine, a single mom who lavishes her love on her son.
Actor Forest Whitaker makes an impressive directorial feature debut, smoothly weaving together the women's lives and showcasing enough dazzling Phoenix locations that you'll want to book your next vacation there. Acting honors go to Bassett, whose portrait of a woman spurned has real heat. Houston, who is looser here than in The Bodyguard, still acts mostly with her neck, looking like a human metronome.