40 jours et 40 nuits

40 Days and 40 Nights could have been written into something interesting. In fact I'm sure it started out interesting, then a series of re-writes probably ruined it. The film cannot decide if it's a sex farce, a date movie, or some kind of statement about morality. The cast seems generally appealing, and the idea of such a promiscuous young man suddenly abstaining from sex sets up some interesting possibilities. Ultimitely, it just goes down as another failed date movie.

Josh Hartnett plays a young man who has just broken up with the girl of his dreams. He then becomes wildly promiscuous; sleeping around with anyone who will talk to him. After some time, his conscience begins to get the better of him, and he swears off sex for Lent. Yep, that means he cannot even masturbate or so much as kiss a girl for the time frame mentioned in the title. That seems like an interesting starting point for a film, but scene after scene never generates the results we the audience are after.

Of course, Hartnett meets another wonderful young lady at the laundry mat. They obviously fall for each other instantly, but their relationship is nothing more than a ploy to see how much the young man can be tempted to break his vow. Of course the script doesn't give him the courage to be honest about why he can't sleep with his new girlfriend. This is only meant to cause tension between the two of them, and frankly it does nothing more than delay what we know will eventually happen.

Scene after scene reminds you that this is only a movie, and in no way do people behave normally or do things happen rationally. First of all, would it make any sense for a guy looking to avoid sex to hang around with a babe like Shannyn Sossamon? I think not. How about their first date? The two of them just ride around San Francisco on a public bus and make warm faces at one another while "Chemistry" by Semisonic chimes away on the soundtrack. Can we say "date movie"? How about the office where Hartnett works? All the girls are hot of course, further tempting our young man. All the guys dress like GAP models, and none of them talk about sports at all! Sure we guys talk about sex at work, but we always at least talk a little about sports, too. In another scene, Hartnett actually gives Sossamon an orgasm using only the petals of a flower. (He can't touch her, if you recall!) To meet a woman like that.... if only! On a more serious note, practicing Catholics will definitely be offended by one scene in particular. In it, Hartnett walks in on his brother who is a priest in training and catches him making out with a nun. If this were an intelligent film, you might make the case that the film is only lobbying for priests to be able to have relations with women; perhaps to help alleviate some of the child abuse scandals. Trust me though, this film is not that intelligent. The scene was included only for schlock value.

Overall, it was an interesting idea, but there were just too many ridiculous scenes to make it watchable. The film comes off as being more than a little wrong headed in a couple ways. First of all, nobody is really as sex-obsessed as the people in this film. And second of all, going without sex for 40 days and nights is disappointing, but not the end of the world. Having sex with a condom..... now there's torture!!!! 5 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

I doubt it.

Someone who wants to have sex but is somehow thwarted; now THAT'S funny ... well, potentially funny. Someone who wants NOT to have sex but is somehow coerced into doing so; that's NOT funny.

-Actually, very frequently it IS funny, but under conditions that don't hold here. The man who simply wants to read a book or work on his woodcarving but has an insatiable spouse; that can be amusing. The man who for obscure "because it's in the script, that's why" reasons gives up sex for Lent … well, whatever. If the film wants to ignore this tepid premise and tell jokes about, say, badminton, that could work. But the sex that's been renounced is something we never hear the end of. It's like listening to someone say, "No thanks, I don't want any sugar in my coffee," six hundred and fifty times.

How long is this guy doing without, anyway? Forty days; a little over a month. Please. Most of us spend, give or take, the first five THOUSAND days of our lives without sex (and it's only so few if you accept the film's extended definition). How hard can it be?

Not a single player in the story has a brain, and the central character is in addition one of the wettest schmendricks ever to be pushed forward as a romantic lead.

After his girlfriend dumps him Matt goes through a lot of meaningless sex that makes him feel bad,so in order to give himself time to recover he decides to give up sex and anything to do with sex for Lent.

I liked the idea, but the movie ended up being a disappointment.

Josh Hartnett is pretty bad in this movie. I can't think of any other movies with him, but considering that I know his name he did a few, so he might be a good actor. But this movie really doesn't show it. I wonder if he even knew it was a comedy, because he sure didn't act as if he did.

Actually besides having a more or less original idea for a romantic comedy the movie didn't go too far from it. The joke was pretty much the same all through 90 minutes. And it was also stupid. It was the kind of sentiment I would expect for a teen movie, but the characters in this one were in their 20's, the whole "omg the poor guy can't live without sex" thing is just dumb. And this is what the whole movie was about, exaggerated and annoying.

Also, while I think sex themed comedies can be very funny. Only this one was trying to be romantic, and this is what made her sexual theme fail. Some of the jokes were off, and seemed more vulgar than funny for the genre. Actually the only time I laughed was at the Bagel Boy.

The story was not well thought through. It makes no sense whatsoever to me why Erica was mad at Matt about the whole abstinence thing. It's not like he decided not to have sex ever again in his life, or that it was a personal insult to her or that he was supposed to tell everything about himself on one date only. Silly. Same as the ending. I don't want to spoil, but what happened with Nicole was in no way funny. And it was also pretty unnecessary, one could have done it better without it.

I went to the movies with a friend, and this was the only film we could agree on. I had pretty low expectations to begin with, so I can't really say I was disappointed, but "40 Days..." didn't really leave any lasting impression on me. It's a bland film - it does create a few laughs - but all in all, it's a pretty forgettable affair.

The best thing this film has going for it, is the nice on-screen chemistry between the two leads. Both Josh Hartnett and newcomer Shannyn Sossamon do well with their characters - or at least as well as the juvenile script allows them. The funniest moments in the film were the condom scene at the beginning, dinner with the parents and the "examination" of Matt's sheets. It's also nice to see a Hollywood movie that doesn't drag on beyond the two hour point. "40 Days..." clocks in at a pleasant 94 minutes, which feels just about right.

All in all, it's a mildly enjoyable film, but nothing memorable. I'll rate it 3 out of 6 on my dice.

I just didn't enjoy the premise of this film. There were some amusing scenes but too often I groaned at the antics of the cardboard characters in this film. I think the primary purpose of this film was to establish Josh Hartnett as a romantic leading man. I think he can be a great one but hopefully he will get to work with better material than this in the future. He is a superb actor as evidenced by his work in Black Hawk Down, "O," and even the critically dogged Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, for my tastes, this film rates a 5 out of 10.