Robin Could

    Robin Givens time again. Recently I had the good fortune to purchase the DVDs of two films she made–I became aware of them through Google–one a romantic comedy, the other a domestic thriller, and let me say that it was a genuine kick to have discovered that the woman I love, and have long loved, has such range. The pictures by and of themselves are of high quality, but Robin is definitely the highlight of both. In the order in which they were viewed, they are:   

• Flip the Script–In this romantic comedy, Robin portrays Rain Jones, the owner of Cheeks and Buns, a body-molding salon and one of the six friends of Randy, who died when he went off a cliff bare-ass naked while engaging in protest abroad. His death forces her to re-unite with with an old boyfriend, one Preston Scott (portrayed quite believably by Miguel A. Nunez Jr., who also co-produced the film), now a gynecologist. Robin is terrific in her very first scene, when Preston calls her to make arrangements for Randy’s funeral (She is already aware of his death). The minute she knows who’s calling her, she asks if she can have a minute and then very humorously hits both knees with the receiver and, equally humorously, tells herself: “O.K., breathe. Just breathe.” She is also quite funny, and quite engaging, as she speaks with Preston concerning Randy’s death, all the while obviously attempting to conceal her awakened passion for him. And when the call is concluded–at her instigation–she humorously, and appealingly, moans: “O.K., Rain, take it easy. [About Preston] Oh, that dog, that no-good, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty dog…O.K., Rain, you’re happy. You’ re involved with a new man, and you’ re happy…[Resting her head upon the back of the man she's massaging] Oh, that no-good, dirty, dirty…scratch that, that no-good, fine, fine dog.” And Robin maintains this level of professionalism throughout the picture, whether when, after a hosiery-wearing thief holds her at gunpoint and demands the ring her boyfriend gave her and said boyfriend, in a panic, runs away, she and the would-be thief discourse upon the merits of the boyfriend or whether, in a much later scene, she’s regaling her gathered friends with information regarding her imaginary boyfriend (according to her, he’s a highly-regarded writer who has signed a $60-million-dollar deal to work on a film with the legendary director Steven Spielberg) or whether, in a still later scene, wherein a group of gathered folks are dancing, she’s boogeying and shimmying her way to the room where she’d been told Preston, with whom she’s reconnected, is. Also: Not once during Flip the Script does Robin let up on the sexiness and charm that she’s exhibited throughout her career. At the end of Script, where she’s hugging and kissing Preston and, having consented to marry him, warmly telling him: “I love you,” we’re greatly warmed that our girl has at last permanently hooked up with her man. We’ re genuinely happy to have made the journey with her.   

• Restraining Order–In this flick, a domestic thriller, Robin essays the part of Diane McNeil, a suburban wife/mother whose marriage to a truck driver (a genuinely chilling Sean Blakemore, with whom she also shared a scene in Flip the Script) is on the outs due to his mercurial nature–although, as we soon come to discover, that’s really and truly not the only reason. Also involved is her since-college friend Russell Jenkins (Reggie Gaskins, intensely likable and supportive in the role and who also, interestingly enough, executive-produced, wrote and directed Order), a high-profile defense attorney who, as the saying goes, has it all: a top-drawer career, a gorgeous home, and a pantingly beautiful wife (the eminently delectable Mari Morrow). Their relationship, however, angers Dontae (Blakemore), who comes to believe–wrongly–that the two are having an affair. When Diane, plainly unhappy, tells Dontae that she wants a divorce and forces him to move out, his suspicions multiply. And conclude, as does Order, with his death. Once again, as in Script, Robin never, ever strikes a false note. We feel her fear and her worry as Blakemore verbally assaults her. When she tells her attorney that she has indeed been having an affair–though not with Russell–and that she made up the entire narrative concerning Dontae being relentlessly abusive and violent (”I wasn’ t happy…I was supposed to be happy“), not only do we not turn against her but we actually feel sorry for her. And we’ re thoroughly convinced that her character has had and continues to have a warm, mutually affectionate friendship with Gaskins’s character. And the very last scene, where Diane (Robin) goes to Dontae’s grave and, tears streaming down her face, silently mouths: “I love you. I’ m sorry,” is absolutely heart-melting. Robin has been fiercely charming, energetic, and sexy in other films (Boomerang–especially–Blankman, Head of State) but here and in Script she truly outdoes herself. Also: In both pictures, Robin shows off the kind of mouth-watering midriff and sumptuous bare feet that no doubt caused Playboy Magazine to get in touch with her to do her classic 1994 cover pictorial.   

    It was the highly-regarded motion-picture director Bruce Beresford, during an introduction to a collection of a very-familiar critic’s film reviews, who contended: “I know it isn’ t politically correct to say it…but…watching beautiful girls can do a lot to relieve tedium.” While neither Flip the Script nor Restraining Order are “tedious”–one is funny, charming, and greatly humanistic, the other stylish, suspenseful, and well-paced–”watching” the “beautiful girl” who heads both pictures, namely Robin, increases the pleasure quotient of each a hundredfold.