Some parts of this film really don’t work, but the parts that do work, work really well. Ed (Jay Mohr, JERRY MAGUIRE) and Alice (Julianne Nicholson, TULLY) are about to get married. Like all couples making this jump they have doubts. Alice wonders if their marriage will work because she hasn’t had a lot of sex with different people and wonders if she will be missing out on something. So she purposes that they fool around with other people until they get married so that they won’t doubt anything once they do get hitched.
Ed isn’t sure about the plan, but soon gets into it more than Alice. Alice’s shallow sister Claire (Lauren Graham, BAD SANTA) and Ed’s callow friend Lou (Josh Charles, DEAD POETS SOCIETY) think the arraignment is brilliant. But Ed’s easy going friend Carl (Andy Richter, NEW YORK MINUTE) thinks it’s awful as does Claire’s smarmy husband Peter (Bryan Cranston, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN), but for reasons his wife might not expect.
What works is the truth and reactions of Alice and Ed as they attempt the meaningless sex, which they find difficult at first and then discover that meaningless sex turns into meaningful sex and then what’s the fun in that when you love someone else. Alice develops kind of a side relationship with sexy contractor Donald (Matthew Davis, BLUE CRUSH) and Ed takes a liking to kinky waitress Sandy (Jill Ritchie, HERBIE: FULLY LOADED).
However, the movie becomes caricature when it deals with the supporting cast’s lives. The relationship between Carl and newly divorced mom Penelope (Helen Slater, SUPERGIRL) is ridiculously over-the-top. It’s like the real-life Ed and Alice got ambushed by sitcom supporting characters. They’re types not people.
Writers Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky (also the director) are married and they succeed when they let the laughs come from the truth behind Ed and Alice’s situation, but stumble a bit when they mug for laughs with the other characters. However, the good parts out way the bad ones, so the film works in the end. It’s rare to get a romantic comedy with any smarts and even rarer to kind one with bite, so this film at least rises above the dialed in crud that we typically get where the supporting characters in this film would be the leads somewhere else.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
