Body Shots

From the director (Michael Christofer) of the wonderful cable movie Gia and the writer (David McKenna) of American History X and the upcoming Johnny Depp film Blow comes this blatent look at the singles scene and date rape.

However the film is no good at all. It centers around four women and four guys who meet up at a club late in the night. It is divided up into two sections complete with title cards (foreplay, good sex, bad sex). Some of the scenes are shot like a documentary with the characters commenting on sex and its do's and do not's.

They join in couples. Jane Bannister (Amanda Peet, a wonderful actress who deserves more), who is a young lawyer meets her new boyfriend Rick Hamilton (Sean Patrick Flanery). These two represent the smart couple. They open the film and look to be much in love.

Michael (Jerry O'Connell) is a LA Raiders football player who hooks up with Sara (Tara Reid, fresh off of her teen role in American Pie, she has also appeared in The Big Lebowski). The rape scene is played from the different points-of-view. One voluntarily and one clearly rape. This is the axis of the film, for it would not have much of anything without this story line.

The two best parts were the next two couples. All are friends and the four girls and four guys (some aquainted with each other , and some not) meet at a club. As I said the two, subplot couples were the best: Ron Livingston as Trent (very funny element to the film, talks like he's in Good Will Hunting though) and Emily Procter (Whitney) hook up and have sex through bondage. The last couple (Brad Rowe as Sean and Sybil Temchen as Emma) have an impromptu sexual rendezvous in the parking lot of the club. It's not so much Temchen I like as Rowe, who probably with Livingston and Procter do the best jobs in the film.

The movie is filled with sex talk (an oral sex instruction school being a low point), and graphic sex. The parking lot, the bondage , the double rape points-of-view. Its influences are Swingers (Livingston from Swingers plays Trent, a name used in Swingers. The tracking shot changes from guys to girls in this. This itself was a take on the Goodfellas Copa tracking shot).

The movie has reminders of Good Will Hunting (accent on Trent), and narrative-wise with trying-to-be-clever shots of flashback, etc. of Pulp Fiction. It takes a sprinkle from each one of all of these films and comes out with at best a mediocre look at the well off, trampy (in my opinion) life of singles in LA. Tries to be clever but comes off being very dumb. Definitely not Cameron Crowe's Singles by a long shot! All the leads are out of place and the supporting players can't really act but have personality. The characters, if you think about it, do it to themselves! How do we feel compassion? The music is unimpressive as is the trying-to-be-clever cinematography.

Overall, the acting was terrible and the storyline was really about alcohol than date rape. I mean, come on, these girls and guys get drunk, sleep with each other and then are confused the next day. No wonder!

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