It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy

Paul Sorvino plays a very faithful husband who is raped at gunpoint by a woman one evening on his way home. This is a comedy, believe it or not. I remember that the husband had a hard time convincing anybody that he had been raped. The husband was sexually taken advantage of by another woman in the story, who thought he was a stud. I doubt that this one will ever see the light of day again; the subject is too distasteful.

Smarter-than-usual TV-movie takes several sly, satirical jabs with role-reversal premise concerning a Los Angeles family man (and eternal doormat) who is forced into having sex with a woman while she holds him at gunpoint. He wants to forget the whole ordeal in the morning, but a reporter has gotten wind of the story and exploits it with the headline, "Man Cries Rape!" Not an exceptional comedy, but a funny one, written with a knowing wink by Earl Barret and Arne Sultan. It certainly benefits from Paul Sorvino's wonderful performance in the lead; Michael Learned also good in change-of-pace role as Sorvino's controlling wife and Adam Arkin (Alan's son) terrific in low-keyed scene with dad Sorvino on the couch (nicely played by both). Though the courtroom finale gets too silly, Sorvino is never less than engaging, and there are quick, clever lines of dialogue all the way through.

About the only good thing I can say about it is that it isn't Rabbit Test. This bottom-of-the-barrel made-for-TV makes light of rape, a crime that is arguably even more grievous than murder. Probably the most amazing thing about it is that Get Smart alumni Arne Sultan accepted writing and producing credits under his own name, and that as many stars participated as did.

It could perhaps be argued that it at least attempted to point out the difficulty women have historically had in getting rape taken seriously, but its success at that attempt is debatable at best.

There is some merit to the idea of examining the question, "what if a woman were to rape a man," notwithstanding the fact that, unless the woman had some drug capable of inducing an uncontrollable erection, such an incident is physiologically unlikely.

Unfortunately, while this film did manage to bring up the question, it did so mainly for the sake of a few tasteless laughs, which managed to overshadow anything meaningful it might have tried to say.

There was a big controversy when this first played on TV. It was on at 8:00 (I believe) and the TV station (I THINK it was ABC) was blasted for showing such a movie of questionable taste so early in the evening. Well, I was 12 when I saw it and I wasn't particularly shocked or upset by it. I found it pretty lame and stupid and didn't find anything funny about a woman forcing a guy to strip nude at gunpoint. And despite what other reviewers have said here rape wasn't even suggested (from what I remember). And she just did it for kicks (!!!!). This movie also goes out of its way to make fun of Sorvino's character. Sorry but I don't find sexual assault that funny. There's no way this will be seen on TV now (except maybe VERY late night) but that's no great loss. I wonder what Paul Sorvino thinks about this now.

Silly, stupid and pretty sick. Don't bother.