IMDb

Sally
This rom-com was so boring. Granted, I’m not a huge fan of the genre as a whole, but I can appreciate a well done romantic comedy. I’m also not really a fan of either Famke Janssen or Jon Favreau, but again, they’ve each played some great roles. However, Love & Sex is not a good rom-com, and Janssen or Favreau are not playing good characters.

It’s not so much that the premise of Love & Sex has been done to death, it’s that this movie puts its characters into scenes that are laughable at best, but more often cringeworthy. It’s embarrassing, really. Kate (Janssen) is your typical “unlucky in love” heroine: She writes love and sex advice articles for a magazine! She meets the love of her life, Adam (Favreau), while dating a complete dud! They break up! She has a nauseating meet-cute with her new boyfriend! She and new boyfriend enthusiastically make out at a party to make Adam jealous!

Okay… maybe the problem really is that this premise has been done to death.

I think I’m just completely spoiled by vastly superior romantic comedies. Ones where the characters actually act like adults (When Harry Met Sally…, Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Wedding Singer), or have a really good reason for acting like children (Big, Thirteen Going On Thirty, Clueless). Not that Love & Sex never puts its characters in serious situations. Kate is clearly affected by being taken advantage of older men during her youth (she loses her virginity to her high school French teacher and unknowingly participates in an affair with a married while she’s in college). She and Adam go through the pain of suffering a miscarriage. Adam struggles with the relationship’s honeymoon period ending, but eventually realizes that he does love Kate. It’s just that all these good scenes are broken up by lame, predictable crap.

Rating: D

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Ben
I bought this film for two reasons: I loved Jon Favreau in Swingers and Made; and I have always had a soft spot for Famke Janssen after her role as Jean Grey in the X-Men films and her performance as one of the sexiest Bond girls ever in GoldenEye. There is a delightful story about me purchasing this film and getting all kinds of weird looks from the cashier who assumed I was buying some sort of pornography. I am sure 20 year old Benny D was mortified at being judged by the cute checkout girl at David Jones, but 32 year old Ben is comfortable that I wasn’t buying anything controversial.

Love & Sex is the story of Kate (Janssen), a reporter who is about to lose her job after writing an article about how blow jobs can save a relationship. She decides to write a new article about all of her relationships and how each one has impacted her life. We go through her early years as a child falling in love with a school bully, to college where she dated one of her teachers, to her most recent relationship with artist Adam (Favreau). The film shows their relationship most of all, showing them meeting, moving in together, a miscarriage and eventual breakup. Both are still pining for each other, but can they make it work?

This little indie film was really good. Most of its charm comes from the performance of Janssen and Favreau and the terrific chemistry they share when they’re on screen. The movie is really short, barely making it over 70 minutes before the credits role, but it is a nice film about relationships. I really liked the scenes with Favreau and Jassen together. They work so well together and you can tell they are close in real life (I assume they are anyway as they have worked together a few times).

Love & Sex is not a porno, it is a little indie comedy about how relationships work and how even the ones that end can still have a huge impact on your life.

This is a short review, but it’s a short movie, so I guess that fits.

Rating: B-