40 Days and 40 Nights
Directed by Michael Lehmann
- comedy
- romance
The story
Matt Sullivan's last big relationship ended in disaster and ever since his heart's been aching and his commitment's been lacking. Then came Lent, that time of year when everybody gives something up. That's when Matt decides to go where no man's gone before and make a vow: No sex. Whatsoever. For 40 straight days. At first he has everything under control. That is until the woman of his dreams, Erica, walks into his life.
What it’s like
Bright, saturated early-2000s studio color: sunlit Los Angeles streets, cramped apartments and a laundromat lit by flat fluorescent tubes, with an upbeat pop-rock soundtrack driving most scenes and cheerful needle-drop montages carrying the middle. The camera is conventional and bouncy, mostly medium shots and quick cuts with easy shot-reverse-shot dialogue, nothing lingering or contemplative. Its vibe is brisk, breezy and lightly raunchy, the kind of thing to put on for a lazy afternoon or a comfort rewatch with friends. The pacing is quick and the register is comic throughout, with a romantic core that follows a lovelorn, self-sabotaging guy slowly learning to take commitment seriously. Sexual content is frequent and crude-jokey, with talk, innuendo and partial nudity rather than explicit scenes; there is some mild profanity, no real violence, and the one dark note is a brief, played-for-laughs reference to a sexual assault that is not dwelt on. Light, romantic-comedy fun for viewers who enjoy a bawdy, good-natured sex comedy and don't mind a few crude gags.
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