How Stella Got Her Groove Back

Stella Payne is a successful San Francisco financial broker and single mother in her forties whose life has become all work and no enjoyment. When her son leaves to spend time with his father, her best friend Delilah pushes her to take a spontaneous vacation, and the two women head to Jamaica. There Stella meets Winston Shakespeare, a much younger man whose outlook on life draws her in. A romance develops despite the twenty-year age gap, forcing her to weigh her feelings against her career and responsibilities back home.

The film was directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan, working from a screenplay by Terry McMillan, who wrote the novel it is based on, and Ronald Bass. Angela Bassett plays Stella, Taye Diggs appears as Winston, and Whoopi Goldberg plays Delilah, with Regina King, Suzzanne Douglas and Michael J. Pagan among the credited cast of thirty-seven. It was released in August 1998 and runs 124 minutes. Made for a budget of 20 million US dollars, it took in roughly 39 million worldwide, a solid return.

Reception was mixed. On IMDb the film holds a rating of 5.8 from about 8,900 votes, and on TMDB it also sits at 5.8, from a much smaller base of 134 votes. The critics' rating stands close by at 5.7 from 49 reviews, so audiences and reviewers landed in similar territory. It was the first of three features Sullivan directed, followed by Barbershop 2: Back in Business and Guess Who.