rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2007
Directed by Daniel Waters; produced by Cary Brokaw, Lizzie Friedman, Greg Little; written by Daniel Waters
Starring Simon Baker, Winona Ryder, Leslie Bibb, Tanc Sade, Patton Oswalt, Mindy Cohn, Neil Flynn
Here is a film with a brilliant premise, whether you want to make a comedy, a dramatic mystery, or a thriller. A guy gets an e-mail with a list containing 101 names. The first 28 are girls he has slept with before he got together with his soon to be wife. Although he gets married, he apparently will sleep with 72 more girls. It is fate. I would have loved to see a film about fate and the question if it exists, if you can change it, and if you want to if you can. But a subplot about a murderous woman is thrown in, and the link is too obvious from the start.
The guy is Roderick Blank (Simon Baker, who looks a lot like Hugh Jackman) and he is not really a bas person, but to call him a good guy would be too much. He is easy on dumping his almost-wife and starts making that list work for him. Some episodes have their entertainment value, but most of them are predictable and too easy to appreciate. The murderous woman is Gillian (Winona Ryder), who actually only puts her victims into a coma, which makes her al most murderous, but not quite. I didn't care much. You must have guessed by now, she is on Roderick's list.
The film is supposed to be a comedy, but except for some smiles there is not much to laugh here. There must have been a lot of ways to change this into a disturbing or even romantic comedy, but with every new attempt failure is its conclusion. The films keeps your attention because you the hope stays, hope that the premise will turn into something real. It almost never does, although the ending, which at first seems not satisfactory at all, has the real subject of the film burried inside it. I wish the filmmakers would have discovered it thirty minutes into the film and presented us with some insightful ideas, but unfortunately we have to do it with this.
'Sex and Death 101' is never unpleasant to watch, but when it is finished you do realize it was not really that pleasant. This, ironically, is exactly the way Roderick describes his situation when he meets a woman and already knows he will or will not have sex with her. If the film wanted to share the leading character's feelings with its audience, it has succeeded.