TNMC
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40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)
This is a movie that could have been a classic, if only they had taken some time to work out problems with the script. Many of the problems are merely minor quibbles but they do distract after awhile. But there is one major league problem that just torpedoes this film at the end.
The premise is simple. Matt (Josh Hartnett) is a major league babe magnet. He has been recently dumped by his long time girlfriend Nicole and in response has seemingly set out on a quest to sleep with every woman in the city. Amazingly though, he starts to find this unsatisfying, or at least somewhat disturbing. He can't get Nicole out of his head and starts panicking in the bedroom. Matt turns to his brother, a priest in training, for advice but sex isn't a topic he has much experience with. So in honor of Lent, Matt decides to swear off sex for 40 days and nights. Not just sex though, fondling, kissing and yes, masturbation, are also banned. No sexual relief what so ever.
His roommate (Paul Costanzo) is completely unsupportive, trying everything to get Matt back out patrolling for women again. Matt proves more resilient than expected and is soon deep into his vow. Two problems though. One, his coworkers set up a website accepting bets in a pool on whether or not he can make it. Two, he meets a woman, Erica (Shannyn Sossamon), who he falls head over heels for. Clearly, neither of these things are going to make it easier on him.
The movie is frequently very funny as it plays off a variety of sexual topics. One of the funnier parts of the movie features Matt and his brother having dinner with their parents. The scene works off the idea that many people are pretty uncomfortable knowing anything about their parents' sex life. It settles on that unnerving concept and then cranks hard to make it worse, and thus funnier. The conversations between Matt and his brother are also highlights of the film. The main highlight though is the pairing of Matt and Erica. They make a fun couple. Hartnett and Sossamon have great chemistry together. Hartnett proved far funnier than I would have expected. The way he gets more strung out as the vow goes on is well done. One character comments on him, "He used to be cute but now he's just twitchy. Sossamon is quickly proving to be a real charmer. She proves that A Knight's Tale wasn't a fluke, commanding attention onscreen. It's not at all hard to buy someone falling hard for her.
Because of his vow, the sexual tension between the two grows to serious proportions. This being a movie, naturally he doesn't tell her about the vow though. This leads to some bumps in the relationship that vary between believable and dumb. They eventually build to up to what I will just call the flower scene and leave it at that. It's a surprisingly effective sex scene with no touching. It worked well enough to inspire someone in the audience to suddenly yell out "Oh, that's not fair!"
As always, I give movies an extra half star on the rating for nudity. Call it juvenile if you want but that's the rule. It was actually pretty refreshing to see a movie that didn't get cut to ribbons to try and fit into a PG-13 rating. This movie is an unapologetic R. This isn't the kind of film to shy away from nudity or try and obscure it. The topic here is sex and thankfully they let it all hang out. It even goes so far as an entire streetful of naked women. The dialog takes a similarly strong direction, giving us fairly reasonable language for the subject.
The core of this movie is sexual tension, which as a device is a funny thing. The timing on it has to be right. Like real sex, if it's too quick, we feel unfulfilled and if it goes on too long we can get bored. This movie contains a scene that can only be described as premature ejaculation. It's embarrassing and ruins the mood for all involved. The scene shatters the tension with horrendous timing, deflating the whole picture. It would have been better served by axing that part all together and extending the film's middle to keep the running time intact.
It's at times a very funny movie but makes a variety of small mistakes. For instance, I noticed that Matt has a book entitled Netscape 2 Unleashed sitting on his table. What, was this supposed to take place in 1994? Hardly the kind of book a web designer in this day would have readily at hand. I realize that's a nitpicky comment but there are other things like that and they build up. But that one fatal scene is what ultimately sinks this movie. It was as if the writer thought, "What is the worst possible thing I could do right now?" and then actually did it. That takes guts but it's still incredibly stupid. An otherwise enjoyable comedy ends up being slaughtered at the last minute.
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