Alex (Dania Ramirez), Fatima (Kerry Washington), and Jack (Anthony Mackie) forge a bond in ‘She Hate Me,’ a satire about corporate corruption and a straight man’s side-business of impregnating lesbians.
MORE INFO MORE INFO ‘She Hate Me’ Opens Aug. 20 United Artists Tara Cinema 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road 404-634-6288 Queer Quotient: Numerous lesbian characters appear throughout the second half of the film, but it rarely sheds light on their lives. Lesbians considering parenthood might find the film’s exploration interesting, if unrealistic.
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Aug 20, 2004  |  By: RHONDA SMITH  | COMMENTS |   |  

IT TOOK SPIKE Lee 28 days to make his current film, “She Hate Me,” and it’s painfully obvious.

In his hasty attempt to tackle themes of sex, greed, money and politics, the filmmaker spends the better part of two hours beating viewers over the head with a predictable message about corruption in corporate America.

The film, which opens locally on Aug. 20, lacks originality in part because of the ease with which the story about an Enron-like company is stolen from recent headlines.

More importantly, the film generally fails to enlighten viewers about the lives of the 18 lesbian characters who each pay a straight man $10,000 to impregnate them the old-fashioned way.

“I had this idea about big business. … This guy works in that business, and he starts impregnating lesbians,” Lee says in a recent interview. “It was the whole Enron thing. It got me thinking.”

Tristan Taormino, a lesbian journalist and former editor of the lesbian sex magazine On Our Backs, served as the technical consultant for “She Hate Me.” But even so, the gay female characters in the film come across as little more than conduits for a straight man’s sexual fantasy, which plays out in graphic detail.

Lee says his intention was not to play up straight male fantasies about what lesbians look like or how they live their lives.

“With the hardliners, I want to say, ‘I don’t think this is a male fantasy or Spike’s fantasy,’” Lee says.

Taormino says she didn’t agree with all of Lee’s decisions about which gay-related scenes to keep or cut, but there are aspects of “She Hate Me” that please her.

“Many women have said, ‘I never see this many dykes of color on screen,’ and their presence alone is important — and hopefully, will pave the way for more representation of more lesbians of color,” Taormino says.

The consultant also says the film’s depiction of a non-traditional family not comprised of a mother, father and children is powerful.

“Many [viewers] we’ve screened the film for said they see an alternative family, or maybe a polyamorous family,” she says. “And that we very rarely see.”

Lee says the “new nuclear family” was at the forefront of his mind when creating the film.

“[At the end of the film], they don’t know how [the family is] going to work,” Lee says. “There is no walking into the sunset hand in hand; it’s problematic. That’s just like life is, and everyone who sees this film can make up their own mind about what happens next.”

But R. Erica Doyle, a lesbian poet, still sees the film as a male fantasy of lesbians.

“The lesbians of color are shown in great variety — butch, femme, aggressive, timid, different sizes, racial backgrounds,” Doyle says. “Although they are portrayed as being various, … I think the portrayal of the lesbians in this movie is extremely harmful and lacking in complexity.”

Taormino counters that no movie can depict all the facets of lesbian life.

“I can appreciate when lesbians say that they feel like they don’t see themselves, their lives, or their realities represented in this film,” she says. “But I don’t think it is meant to represent all lesbians of color, all upwardly-mobile dykes, all lesbian moms, etc.”

THE OPENING SCENES of “She Hate Me” focus on the career of John Henry “Jack” Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), an African-American man who works as an executive at a biotechnology firm in New York that is trying to find a cure for AIDS. Jack finds himself in trouble after reporting the company’s shady dealings to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Woody Harrelson portrays Leland Powell, a company executive more concerned about money than his employees. Ellen Barkin portrays Margo Chadwick, a foul-mouthed powerbroker torn between helping Jack and keeping her job.

Around the time viewers might begin to wonder where the lesbians are in “She Hate Me,” Jack’s ex-girlfriend, Fatima (Kerry Washington), shows up unannounced at his apartment with her new love, Alex Guerrero (Dania Ramirez). The women ask Jack to provide sperm so they can simultaneously become pregnant. And each offers to pay him $10,000 for his services.

Subsequently, Alex and Fatima begin bringing lesbian friends and acquaintances (18 in all) to Jack’s apartment so he can impregnate them — for $10,000 each. Fatima and Alex get a cut of the money.

Taormino describes the film as sexual satire. But it’s too far-fetched to provoke a serious discussion.

Some of the more enjoyable scenes involve Jack’s relationship with his mother, Lottie (Lonette McKee), and his father, Geronimo (Jim Brown). The parents can barely ...