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Matt no longer enjoys sex. He does not enjoy himself as a partner, his attitude towards women, how women influence his actions, and he is especially tired of his snake of an ex-girlfriend. In his case, he is so tired that he forbids himself from sex during Lent in the movie “40 Days and 40 Nights.” In terms of single guy sacrifice, this is somewhere between easier than asking for help and harder than not drinking.
Matt (Josh Hartnett) is repulsed by the way a woman’s presence grooms his libido. The breakup with Nicole (Venessa Shaw) is the final straw.. She loved him, dumped him, and still excites him, which comes as no surprise; As Bagel Man who makes office morning deliveries puts it, “She’s so hot you need one of those cardboard eclipse things just to look at her.” Some support comes from his brother John (Adam Trese), who is also training to be a priest and gives Matt far more sensible advice than one would expect from a theologian. But even Matt’s own brother doesn’t think he can go 40 days without sex. Certainly not a co-worker (Monet Mazur), who gives him her phone number on a Xerox of her rear end.
This is when Matt stumbles upon Laundromat Girl. She is charming, beautiful and intelligent, and they seem to have chemistry. He tries to distance himself and end the conversation before he succumbs to his worst fears, but a week later she is back in the Laundromat, and so is he. Her name is Erica (Shannon Sossamon) and before long, they are engaged in what appears to her a rather unusual courtship. On their first real date, at the moment for their first kiss, they move in closer, strict their silence, and he gives her a high five instead. What is wrong with this man? Directed by Michael Lehmann, who shows the same sympathy for his characters in “40 Days and 40 Nights” as make the story transcend a sexual sitcom “The Truth About Cats And Dogs,” just like in this underrated piece, uses humor as a tool to explore human nature. The difference between movies depicting characters with uncontrollable sexuality and this piece, where the main character seeks to master, his sexual urges, is astonishing.
The world appears to be plotting against him. His father, who is recently hip-replaced, takes great pride in presenting him with a sexual positions checklist that is manageable even when he is in a cast. The First scene is fun enough to place it as one of the top most funny scenes. The second one is where Matt’s roommate bursts into the apartment with a UV lamp to check for secretions on the bed. This scene ranks second.
Now, Matt is petrified to know that his colleagues had made an office pool in which everyone bets on how long he can go without sex, and worse, it is posted on a website. “You’re selling banner ads?” is all Matt could think off looking at the ridiculous website. Erica is furious about the whole situation and now, there is no end to the chaos.
Here, Hartnett displays a charming side of him that is very much appealing. It serves as a glimpse to his immense skill. There’s a dangerous trend of finger pointing to an actor for a movie that got poorly received, as with Hartnett in “Pearl Harbor”. Kevin Costner’s case is no different post “The Postman”. Actors tailored with charm have bouts of condemnation, as if they did not try their best for the movie they hoped would conclude in success. Approaching this film, I got “Pearl Harbor” jokes. The screenplay did kick in during the showing and the next phase of Hartnett’s career was officially opened.
As an average romantic comedy, “40 Days and 40 Nights” presents the out of the box opening sequence where Erica excels in acting dramatically irrational for the desired time period, but the script is not without those Rob Perez modern touches, and the way he speaks about sex tackles many angles rather than the basic expected method.
The scene with flowers blooming is way too over-the-top sensual. Unfortunately, the ending goes off the rails for more reasons than I can mention, other than to say that Nicole’s full involvement is rather unpleasant and unneeded and that there was a much kinder and funnier manner to fix it all.
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