Jungle Fever

When happily married black architect Flipper Purify (Snipes) begins an affair with his Italian-American secretary Angie (Sciorra), all hell breaks loose: his wife (McKee) throws him out, Angie leaves home after being beaten by her father, and families, friends and neighbours chip in with horrified reactions... Lee's 'joint' looks good, features a chorus of garrulous characters (most of them heavily into racial hatred), makes stirring use of music (by Stevie Wonder and others), and never allows the forgiving women a fair share of the deal. But instead of showing how prejudice seeps into the private intimacies of daily life, the film turns its attention to the other characters, including Flipper's junkie brother Gator (Jackson), who fuels a subplot evoking the destructive effects of crack on black society. Sadly, this aspect, which allows Lee his most unsettling and impressive scene, seems loosely tacked on to the main thrust of the film.