Sem Compromisso

Much better than previous review would suggest. Charming and quirky rather than insubstantial. Characters not terribly deep but there is enough good dialogue and plot-twists to keep you entertained. Not meant as a deep treatise on relationships but grows on you as it progresses with aspects of the relationships amusingly reminiscent of reality.

Miss it, unless you have an awful lot of spare time.

This film is about the love life of "Jamie," who is the title character. Jamie is a 20-something woman who sleeps with every guy in sight. Yup, she's easy all right. She generally seems to be okay with that. However, her random hook-ups just aren't satisfying her of late. She decides to launch into a period of celibacy, just like the main character in the mainstream film "40 Days and 40 Nights." In the mean time, her friends and relatives pair up, get pregnant, and get married in unusual combinations.

While Jamie's wild ways last, this is a cute and fun movie. The characters seem slightly more genuine than usual. Jamie's sex scenes are awfully hot. However, the film quickly looses steam for lack of any sort of real plot. Well, a meandering plot less Indy film is no rarity, but the script then tries to keep us interested by springing "cheap drama" out of every futon in LA. Out of nowhere there are pregnancies, out-of-wedlock births, gay marriages, inter-color marriages, geriatric marriages, etc. Overnight, Jamie is transformed from a free-wheeling free-love adventurer to a sexually delicate and vulnerable shrinking violet.

Perhaps if this film had been made 30 years ago such an unconnected series of events would have seemed interesting for being nonconformist. It might have been taken to indicate some change in society. These days, such relationships are not interesting in their own right.

So, the last half breaks down into a soap opera.

This is the standard plot of "Which guy should should the girl choose?" The choices are: the correct choice, or the other guy. I won't spoil it for you. Even though the ending is predictable, I didn't care. I was just hoping she'd make her decision quickly so the movie would end. At least it's a short movie, something like 90 minutes.

If you're going to use a tired plot, you need to do better than this. Some folks might like the gratuitous sex scenes; they did help pass the time but not to the point where it made Easy entertaining. There are plenty of romantic comedies that are better than this; if you can't find one watch an episode of Friends or Coupling.

What an unexpected pleasure to watch a smart romantic comedy that doesn't condescend, and yet has everything work out in a most gratifying way. Jane Weinstock might not be the Jane Austen of our age, but she has the same intelligent approach to tracking our desire for romance, our foibles, the lessons we have to learn before we've earned our match. The actors, particularly the two sisters, do a beautiful job. Moreau is luminous. The camera work is terrific. I'm a fan.

Jamie Harris (Marguerite Moreau) is a young woman that works giving original names to different products. She has a promiscuous life, with affairs with "Mr. Wrongs", differently of her sister that has a steady relationship with her boyfriend. Jamie misses her mother, who committed suicide when she was a child, and her father blames himself for the death of his wife. When Jamie dates her former professor John (Naveen Andrews), for whom she had a crush, she believes she found her prince charming. Meanwhile she meets Mick (Brian F. O'Byrne), the host of a TV show, and they become friends. When John ends his relationship with Jamie, she decides to begin a celibate for three months, and she becomes closer to Mick. After some wrong decisions, Jamie finally commits with her true love.

"Easy" is a delightful and sexy romance, supported by a delicious and wonderful screenplay and great direction and performances, but mostly by this lovely actress Marguerite Moreau. The witty and sensual character of Jamie Harris is credible because of the magnificent performance of the expressive and gorgeous Marguerite Moreau, and I really felt in love for her. The director Jane Weinstock shows a tight and sensitive direction in her first feature, and I expect to see another work of this promising professional. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Easy – Sem Compromisso" ("Easy – Without Commitment")