February 7, 2003 | Imagine The Taming of the Shrew reconfigured as a UPN sitcom, and you’ll be prepared for Deliver Us from Eva, a lightweight romantic comedy that works best when its actors aren’t trying too hard for easy laughs.

It helps a lot that Gabrielle Union, exceptionally well-cast in the tricky title role, comes across as a terrifically appealing triple threat: Smart, sexy and self-assured. But it helps even more that she’s teamed with -- but not, strictly speaking, tamed by – LL Cool J, the veteran rapper and occasional actor, who makes the most of his opportunity here to display the smooth moves and winning cool of a classic romantic lead.

LL plays Ray Adams, a masterfully ingratiating ladies’ man who rarely sticks with any woman, or remains in any job, for very long. Easygoing and irresponsible, Ray is the inconstant yang to the resolute yin of Eva Dandridge (Union), a strikingly beautiful but implacably nitpicky public-health inspector. Of course, since this is a movie, it’s only a matter of time before these opposites attract.

Years earlier, Eva assumed responsibility for her three younger sisters after their parents died. Bethany (Robinne Lee), Kareenah (Essence Atkins) and Jacqui (Meagan Good) now are grown-ups – indeed, the latter two are married -- but Eva has never grown out of being their fiercely protective surrogate mother. And that’s what brings Ray into the picture.

To be more precise, that’s what leads Tim (Mel Jackson), Mike (Duane Martin) and Darrell (Dartanyan Edmonds), the significant others of the younger Dandridge sisters, to employ Ray as a kind of amorous stealth bomber. They’re chronically annoyed by Eva’s ability to control every facet of her sisters’ lives (and, by extension, their lives as well). But they lack the wherewithal to confront her – she easily intimidates them through the simple expedient of using words with more than two syllables -- so they pay Ray $5,000 to keep her happily distracted with persistent wooing.

Complications arise when true love blooms, which will surprise only those moviegoers who have never seen another romantic comedy. Still, despite the movie’s reliance on tried-and-true formula, director Gary Hardwick (The Brothers) does his best to give a fresh spin to many of the clichés. In this, he is aided by the engaging performances of his two leads. LL and Union develop a spirited give and take in their scenes together, especially – and surprisingly – when their characters stop playing for laughs, and start playing for keeps. 

Hardwick generates a lot of good will during the opening credits, with a nifty production number choreographed to Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “You’re All I Need to Get By.” Unfortunately, some of that good will is dissipated during the early scenes, which are broadly played (particularly by some of the supporting players) and overbearingly cartoonish. When Eva arrogantly walks into a sister’s bedroom to arbitrarily interrupt a bout of conjugal bliss, you can’t help wondering why the buddies don’t hire a real killer, not a mere ladykiller.

It’s hard for a movie to recover its comic equilibrium after such clumsy missteps in the early going. That Deliver Us from Eva eventually rights itself, to the point of being at least modestly amusing, is a testament to the professionalism of all parties involved.