Let's Talk About Sex

My friend and I were excited to rent a film about women candidly discussing sex, but we soon learned that, instead, this particular movie is about male fantasies regarding how women view sex. We were shocked and dismayed to find out that a woman had written and directed this film.

I really didn't like this movie. The acting wasn't too bad (in fact I think they did a nice job with the casting), but the plot (what little of it there was, outside of the female-power home video clips) was disconnected and the director overplayed almost every sensitive scene, making the viewer care less and less about more and more. By the end of this movie, I was checking the "time remaining" display on my VCR and cracking dirty jokes about Michael. And I'm sure that whenever women become extremely upset, they all go on mass cleaning sprees. It's in the movie, it must be true, right? Overall: Don't watch this movie unless you want to see women talk trash about sex.

But truthfully, that's the way that life sometimes works!

Which is what I think this movie is actually about. It is a shame that Troy Beyer didn't focus more on the poignant and emotional parts of her three main characters long before the end of this movie. I honestly wasn't hoping for skin footage when I grabbed this video off the shelf. Paget Brewster as Michelle was the only reason I rented it from Blockbuster anyway--there was a recent cycle of her as "Kathy" on Friends broadcast on CBS recently. I found her presence as an actress and character intriguing, besides her large warm eyes and mammoth smile. In "Let's Talk About Sex" the gratuitous, raw sexual footage seemed overdone. But, it did serve to set the musky mood for this film's sexual side. The grainy video footage of women who were interviewed for a possible TV show called "Girl Talk" was impressive and disturbing for me, a guy, who has enough problems trusting some of you already. Their stories and opinions on sex, men, and being women did serve to add depth to the story; nevertheless, I found myself wanting to see more of the emotionally bruised and honest sides of the main characters, more of their history, as well as the sincere parts of the strangers they interviewed for "Girl Talk". To me, it was two different works melded together...the vulgar, clay side of sex along with the more ethereal feelings found within humans as sexual, emotional beings...somehow this film never seemed to find a segue from one into the other without making me lurch from the impact of the pace changes. Two sides of the same coin, I think that this is an honorable work: Like most films that have good merit, this one ends with the three friends each having their own much needed epiphany. That the characters learned something and had their ships come in is enough for me. I did take something really good from it.

There are two things going on in Let's Talk About Sex. One part of the story is the making of a videotape that is to be the pilot of a cable TV program - a talk show where women talk about sex. This aspect of the film works well - it really does capture the feel of things (though the answers given are remarkably forthright; I suspect that you'd have to do a LOT of editing to get anything like that in real life), and the answers are entertaining and sometimes insightful.

The other aspect of the story is a look at the love lives of the three principal characters - the one making the film, and the two friends that she lives with. This part of the film doesn't work nearly as well; the characters just didn't involve me.

Let's Talk About Sex could have been an even better film if it had been done as a straight-up mockumentary. But there's enough good stuff here to make it worth a look.

I agree with a previous comment. Randi Ingerman IS a Goddess in this movie. It is enough to rent this movie just to feast your eyes on this beautiful woman!

Randi...Will you marry me!!!!!