Love & Sex (2000)

Simply A Masterpiece

People are voting emotionally.

Fantastic!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Since seeing Swingers I have become a big John Favreau fan but Love & Sex was not one of his greatest movies. The basis of the film is all in the title: love and sex. Favreau plays artist Adam Levy who meets Kate Welles (Famke Janssen) at one of his art exhibits. Soon thereafter, they begin dating and enjoy frequent sex. At first, their relationship is nothing but great and passionate. But as time passes the passion naturally fades and, eventually, Adam decides to call it quits with Kate. Overall, the movie is filled with witty dialogue and some memorable scenes (like how Adam picks up Kate at the art exhibit) but didn't finish strongly enough. I'd say the first half of the film was genuinely funny while the second half struggled through a cliché-filled plot and predictable ending. Still, if you're a fan of jon favreau then I'd recommend this film but don't expect as many laughs as in Swingers or a cameo by Vince Vaughn.

Come on people, this is a Ro Co (romantic comedy, please we should all know the terminology by now). Are you seriously expecting some amazing, thought-provoking, inner-meaning "film"??? Surely not. You should, however, be expecting a make-you-laugh/make-you-smile kind of movie -- and you get just that. In fact, you get even more. Love & Sex is a witty, suspenseful (well as suspenseful as Ro Co's can be...but i might even go so far as to label it a SuRoCo...suspenseful romantic comedy obviously), realistic, and downright fun movie. In fact its not just witty, it's the kind of funny that makes you laugh so loud you later wonder if everyone else thought you laughed a little "too loud." but not to worry, you didn't, because it's just that fun. what separates it from average Ro Co's is its ability to accurately capture the not so bright side of relationships, but its this very honesty that makes it all the better in the end. So go rent it/buy it/re-enact it its worth it. It's definitely a top rate Ro Co in my book (and i WROTE the book on Ro Co's)

LOVE AND SEX (2000) *** Famke Janssen, Jon Favreau, Cheri Oteri, Noah Emmerich, Ann Magnuson, Josh Hopkins, Rob Knepper, Vincent Ventresca, (Cameo: David Schwimmer). Dir: Valerie Breiman.I love Famke Janssen. Her curvaceous, statuesque physique and indelible cheekbones, the lush lips and alert dark brown eyes complimenting her mane of raven hair… Sorry. Ok now that I 've got that out in the open I can now happily say that her latest film, and first comedy, is an engaging and funny look at two characteristics seldom in synch during relationships.The aforementioned sexy significant other in a parallel universe stars as Kate a young woman facing her past and present affairs of the heart largely due to her stressful job as a feature journalist for a chic women's magazine not unlike Cosmopolitan run by her shrewish editor (Magnuson, always a welcome sight and doing a slight riff on her character from her sitcom 'Anything But Love'), who forces her to make a deadline about an article on finding (and loving) the right man.Kate has been through the relationship mill and flashbacks in chronology from her deflowering by her French college professor (Knepper) to an unknowingly married man (Emmerich) up to her 14th lover, Adam (Favreau, best known from 'Swingers'), an artist with a flair for the grotesque in his ugly paintings and for his way with being forthright in conversation. Immediately smitten by his charm Kate falls in love and is convinced Adam is her soulmate and vice versea.What follows is a string of sequences of the ups and downs of their relationship with echoes of 'Annie Hall', 'She's Having A Baby' and 'When Harry Met Sally…' but maintains a smartness all its own and largely for a change of pace, told mostly from the woman's viewpoint thanks to novice filmmaker Breiman who also penned the sassy, self-deprecating screenplay. Many of her setups take time and are played loose for full effect as well as some genuine out loud laughs, especially when Kate and Adam break up and they keep running into one another with new partners (I loved Kate's assessment of one of Adam's young nymphos as a Lolita and when he defends her by saying she plays the harp her tart retort is, 'Oh so she's a bimbo savant'.) Favreau seems to be channeling Albert Brooks with his wire rim glasses and curly hair as well as being funny on his own (his sudden realization of making the biggest mistake in dumping Janssen is an all too true moment not unlike the classic scene in 'Swingers' when he makes the biggest faux pas: answering machine redialing).Oteri, the current Gilda Radner of 'SNL' has a small but amusing part as the Mutt to Janssen's Jeff (or is that the other way around) and one of the largest laughs is by the unbilled Schwimmer; to say anymore would ruin a fine gag.But the biggest surprise is how adept Janssen is in being such a real character and not a cool cucumber as she has been more or less typecast in her other films. Think Janeane Garafalo trapped in the body of a supermodel and you pretty much get the sum of the parts of her Kate.Chemistry, all-too-familiar genre refreshened and a sparkling turn by Janssen makes for a nice date movie (even if you've been married 50 years or it's a blind date) and a good laugh at the foibles of following one's heart (with heartbreak).

But I liked it... I am a sucker for this kind of story, each and every time. Even a half-baked one. It just runs too deep with me, and I suspect with lots of people. One thing though, why do so many Hollywood films these days seem to take little jabs at Christianity? What? Yeah... I mean, it seems like it's always the Christian women being romanced by a Jewish actor, or a Jewish character, and never the reverse. That in itself is just unblanced, but not anti-Christian. The anti-Christian element comes in with things like the "blind date" coming to the front-door and badgering what's her name with the hard-sale for "Jeesus". Or the cross being predominately displayed above her bed, after the break-up - what is the message here? I've seen lots of jabs like this, and while it doesn't bother me per se, I do notice it and will point it out.