By Courtney L. Woods Staff Critic
Lent is a time for giving up and abstaining from one’s biggest temptation. For some it is chocolate or smoking, but for Matt Sullivan (Josh Hartnett), his biggest vice is sex. After his break-up with a long time girlfriend, he gives up his carnal needs for Lent to cure the “vast emptiness” that rages inside of him.
40 Days and 40 Nights is a film in the same vein as the American Pie flicks in that it is spliced with sometimes gross sexual humor and plenty of gratuitous nudity. All in all, it is a “guy” movie but girls will be lured to the theaters with the promise of an unadulterated ninety minutes of Josh Hartnett eye-candy. However, this is not his normal brooding faire. He explores the realms of physical comedy and allows himself to be put into, er, compromising situations.
So Matt gives up sex and all of his friends and co-workers say it can’t be done. There is no way he can go 40 days without some form of sexual contact. Even his brother, a priest in training from whom Matt seeks advice, seems extremely skeptical. When word gets round at his work (one of the many San Francisco area “Dot-Coms”), his co-workers develop an on-line wagering site called “The Vow,” where people from all over the globe place bets on what day his celibacy will end.
At first it starts off easy, Matt finds clarity in building model cars and doing laundry. While accomplishing the latter, he meets Erica (A Knight’s Tale’s Shannyn Sossamon,) who he feels that he has an absolute “connection” with. Of course, she learns of his vow and they toil with their feelings for the rest of the film.
40 Days and 40 Nights is relatively short and has some real moments of comedy. However, it also has the same cliches as most of the teen films. To win the bet, everyone tries to get Matt excited. From Viagra in his orange juice, to the obligatory girl-kissing-girl scene, this film could have been made from the scrapped scenes of the American Pie films. Matt even has the randy parents. His Dad has had hip surgery and the doctors give him a list of “positions” to test out his range of motion; a scene reminiscent of (but not nearly as funny as) Eugene Levy as Jim’s Dad in the American Pie movies.
The best scenes though, belong to Josh Hartnett and his fearless venture into comedy. After serious films like Pearl Harbor, O, and Black Hawk Down; it is refreshing to see him risk his hunky-yet-thoughtful exterior to portray someone a little more clumsy and accident prone. Hartnett, near the end of the film grows pale, dishelved, and a little wigged-out by hallucinatory images. He’s sort of like the male version of Ally McBeal, but his mirage-like fantasies are much different than the now-infamous “dancing baby.”
Sure, it’s a little predictable; but it is much better than some of the pure crap (like Crossroads) that is released into the theaters at this time of year. Hey, there is always an upswing. At least in this film there is no nasally singing.
CARDINAL GRADE: B
