In my review of Spike Lee's last film, 25th Hour, I mentioned that it went on a bit too long, but I also brushed that gripe aside when I wrote that "Lee can take as long as he wants." I said this because Spike Lee is an important filmmaker, one whose work is so urgent that, even when flawed, it is compelling. I don't think I spoke to soon, but I do know that I can't forgive the many faults of his new film, She Hate Me, so easily. Or at all, for that matter. Over the course of the film's limited release these past few months, it has received many scathing reviews; cries of homophobia and misogyny and even racism; and a few more reviews which point out that it's not quite that bad. Those reviews are right. Lee is still a smart filmmaker, and he has strong points to make here. Many strong points. Too many strong points. So many that they all dilute each other and it takes a bit of patience to resist throwing up your hands and simply calling it a mess. It may be a mess, but I'll be damned if I don't give a Spike Lee film the respect it still deserves.

The plot involves a young Africa American executive at an upstart pharmaceutical company that wants to rush its new AIDS vaccine to the market. The executive, played by Anthony Mackie, is named John Henry Armstrong, and he's a smart, honest fellow, smart enough to smell something fishy when the company's top scientist takes a swan dive out his office window. This particular scene is rooted in frightening reality; the grisly, tragic aftermath of the suicide is shown in graphic detail, and one can't help but be reminded of the post 9-11 themes that were so pervasive in 25th Hour. There may be something allegorical going on; the death is partially the result of deceit and corporate politics (and make no mistake about where Lee stands: his directing credit falls over an image of a three dollar bill with Dubya's face emblazoned on it).

The same day as the suicide, John Henry Armstrong catches lower-tier employees shredding documents. He blows the whistle and is given walking papers by his superiors (played with efficient steeliness by Ellen Barkin and Woody Harrelson). They blackball him, squeeze him out of the job market with vicious hearsay and, just to kick him while he's down, somehow manage to freeze his bank accounts. So it's a good thing John's ex-fiancee Fatima (Kerry Washington) shows up when she does, arm in arm with her new lesbian partner, each with 5,000 dollars in cash and raging maternal harmones. They each pay John to have sex with them. Hot, passionate sex.

At this point, the corporate drama becomes a comedy of sorts as Fatima enlists John's services to impregnate all her lesbian friends at the price of ten thousand dollars a pop. They're all feeling maternal, all ovulating, all pretty hot and tempting and all fully capable of being brought to a screaming climax by John's ceaseless sexual abilities. He's quite the workhorse: CGI effects show thousands of smiling sperm travellign up multiple vaginal canals, fertilizing one egg after another after another...

So what Lee has set up here is a fairly fascinating premise: a successful young African American, who has eschewed the stereotypes of his ethnicity and become a highly educated, highly successful businesman at a fairly young age, is forced to stoop to degrading lows to maintain his quality of life in the upper eschelons of society. Nice stuff. Smart, funny. But that's not all we get: before the corporate sperm donor complex can be resolved, Lee takes us on sidetrips through the history of whistleblowing, the complexities of family life and responsibility, the expecations of Mafia parents, the trials and tribulations of lesbian cohabitation, and probably one or two other detours that inflate the running time to nearly two and a half hours.

I don't mind any of these subplots in and of themselves. They all have their points, and they all, in some way, play a part in some larger picture. For example, one of Lee's subjects seems to be the aforementioned perception of black men as oversexed studs. Likewise, he also jabs at the cultural acceptance of lipstick lesbians by filling the film with virtually no unattractive gay women. Lee has never been one for delving into the female psyche, gay or straight, but he goes way over the top here. There's one scene in which Fatima and her lover have a serious, mature discussion about relationships, and then top it off with a spur-of-the-moment ession of steamy sex on the kitchen counter. Because after all, what's the point of being a lesbian if you can't turn straight guys on by having hot sex with other hot women?

It's not blatant satire; the inclusion of these stereotypes in the film at all is the joke, which I think many people may not get. I might not have gotten it either if not for the scene in which John Turturro, as a Mafia Don whose daughter John has impregnated, imitates Marlon Brando and talks about how The Godfather changed the perception of the mafia. I think that speech might have been Lee's proof that he knew what he was doing with this story. Or that he once knew, before he got so mired in all the messages he wanted to convey. Every point he makes is a point worth making, but after a while you just wish he'd narrow his focus. Roger Ebert pointed out in his favorable review that the film is never boring, and this is true on a scene by scene basis. The problem is that there are just so many scenes.

I can't say that the film isn't worth watching, but if you're not a Spike Lee afficiando, please don't go see it. Rent his great films, beginning with Do The Right Thing and Malcom X and then moving on to Jungle Fever, He Got Game, Clockers, Summer Of Sam; work your way through his filmography (skip Girl 6 for now). By the time you've seen the work that's given Lee his reputation, She Hate Me will be out on video, and you can watch it, appreciate what he got right, and fast forward through what he got wrong.