Release Date: March 1, 2002
Starring Josh Hartnett, Vinessa Shaw, Shannyn Sossamon, Paulo Costanzo, Griffin Dunne
Directed by: Michael Lehmann
Written by: Rob Perez, Steve Pink, D.V. DeVincentis
Distributed by: Miramax Films
MPAA Rating: R (strong sexual content, nudity, language)
Just when you thought it was safe to say that Josh Hartnett had taken the higher road of more substantial films, like Black Hawk Down, he goes and does something like 40 Days and 40 Nights. Though the concept of one man's journey through celibacy is an inherently funny idea, the screenplay by Rob Perez, Steve Pink, and D.V. DeVincentis didn't deliver the great lines and memorable characters to warrant many laughs.
The idea, specifically, goes as follows: Matt (Josh Hartnett) is just another young playboy working for a dot-com in San Francisco. But he can't seem to get his love life together, and after a harsh break-up with his girlfriend Nicole (Vinessa Shaw, Corky Romano), he decides to take a vow of complete celibacy for Lent.
He receives little encouragement from those around him, including his roommate, Ryan (Paulo Costanzo, Road Trip), who decides to supervise a betting pool on how long Matt will keep his vow. Then, unexpectedly, Matt finds the love of his life, Erica (Shannyn Sossamon), at the local laundromat. Unfortunately he can't do anything about it -- and may even risk blowing off Erica for the sake of a silly bet.
So let's get to the problems with this movie. There aren't many characters in the film that will touch the audience. Hartnett pretty much runs the show and he does a good job playing up the cute puppy dog angle, but there's no sense of any particular growth in his character.
Despite the bad writing, he aimed for the laughs when he was supposed to and got the crowd to sigh with that twinkle in his eye. He definitely has chemistry with his costars -- this time Shanynn Sossamon (who swapped heartthrobs from her last role in the Heath Ledger starrer A Knight's Tale). Sossamon, pretty and adorable, is becoming adept at completing the façade of the perfect couple.
There are a few genuine laughs sprinkled throughout the film. Many of them come from Paulo Costanzo, whose role has similar qualities to his Road Trip character. Other laughs come from comic veteran Griffin Dunne (Practical Magic), who, as Matt's dot-com boss, tries to go celibate as well (emphasis on tries).
However, the script is the standard template, and if doesn't have the right dialogue or characters, it isn't going to work. Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis have both collaborated on great scripts before -- Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity -- and so it's not a stretch to believe that the parts they contributed to 40 Days were probably the best scenes of the film. First-timer Rob Perez, I'm assuming, had the basic idea and wrote the majority of the script, but he struggled between opposing ideas of straight romantic comedy and gross-out film. To be sure, this is no There's Something About Mary.
Don't expect huge laughs at every turn. Instead, expect the usually combination of sexual references, gross-out humor, nudity, and the ever-present Josh Hartnett in the middle of it all.
all contents © 2002 Michael J. Eiff