At the start of the movie, a little boy and a little girl are each having a photo made, possibly by a parent, but separately. The little girl teases the little boy. Does this mean anything? Well, it might, or it might just be symbolic.
Whitney is new to New York City, having just moved to a relatively nice apartment as she starts a new job as a TV reporter. She tells the audience about herself periodically. Dee is her neighbor who makes friends with her easily.
Jimmy is an aspiring short story writer who must wait tables and live with his jazz pianist father Larry since being a writer isn't particularly lucrative. Like Whitney, he too breaks the fourth wall to explain his life. Jimmy has several male friends he hangs out with a lot, including Eddie.
Jimmy and Whitney run into each other (sometimes literally) several times, and most of the time it's a terrible experience. In one case, a couple of misunderstandings paired with very clever writing make for a funny, if somewhat off-color, sequence of events.
Both Jimmy and Whitney have trouble in their jobs, as well as their romantic lives. We see a number of potential girlfriends for Jimmy that didn't work out for some reason, as well as a couple who might be "the one". There are plenty of funny moments.
As the result from several miscommunications, two characters have a telephone conversation so well written and acted it could be excerpted for a Golden Globe clip, had the whole movie been that high quality. I'm not sure about Oscar, since there are fewer eligible movies due to the lack of separate categories for comedy. It's still quite enjoyable if you're not easily offended by the frank sex talk.
At least two male characters are gay. One is Whitney's hairdresser (I love his work; okay, the credits say Sasha Cummins, but the actor is quite good too) and so obviously gay. The other is so obviously straight you won't suspect.
The normal romantic comedy formula involves a man and a woman who may or may not like each other from the start, but do end up together at some point and stay together or get back together at the end, in most cases. This movie doesn't stick to that formula. It seems all too clear the male lead and female lead despise each other, and not in the way that hints there will be a relationship eventually. But nothing's impossible. I will say I enjoyed the ending a lot.
For me, this movie wasn't all that enjoyable. Some actors and actresses I can easily like. Jenny McCarthy isn't one of them. It's not her, but she's just not my type, though she has great hair in most of her scenes. And there's just so much negativity.
Also, the sex talk in this movie is quite graphic. And that's the edited for TV version. I don't know how bad the movie actually got. But it depends on the individual. There is certainly quality here for those who like this sort of thing.
Drea de Matteo seems totally out of place on "Desperate Housewives", and I don't care for her there, but as a character with a similar personality here, I like her a lot. She just fits in better in New york City.
One of Jimmy's dates is very pretty. All I know about her, since she was in just one scene, is that she started out in her underwear, got mad, and put on her clothes and left. I would have liked to get to know her better. I liked the actress, not just for her looks.
There is music for nearly every taste. I liked scenes where the style of music is that of Larry's group--traditional jazz which Jimmy considers boring. He wishes Larry would take more risks with his life, but I like what Larry is doing. Only once do we actually see that he is playing that music.
If you can deal with graphic dialogue and like quality, this movie may be for you.
