American Love

Knots is a clever portrayal of the modern day urban relationship and love triangle genre. It is both poignant and relevant and effectively portrays a range of viewpoint and emotion relating to how people interact with each other both in and out of relationships and how people come face-to-face with their own demons. Scott Cohen and Annabeth Gish give strong performances. John Stamos is brilliant with his character portrayal of a care free womanizer (I can hands down say this is his strongest work that I have seen to date) and the rest of the cast does an overall strong job of rounding out the movie. I thought the movie was well written and directed with a crisp, thorough understanding of mood, pacing and the genre as a whole. Greg Lombardo does a masterful job of allowing the characters to evolve in a way that feels very natural and then gets out of their way allowing them to follow their own path to meaning and discovery. Overall, I think this a meaningful comedy with a strong message that shouldn't be missed.

I saw this movie one night on Lifetime television and I found myself actually enjoying it. Scott Cohen is funny and sincere as Dave, a man who finds himself in the middle of a love triangle between his sexually confused wife, Greta (played with honesty Annabeth Gish), and a very sexy "omnisexual" lawyer, Lily (played with wicked sexiness Paulina Porizkova). Meanwhile, Dave's philandering friend Cal (John Stamos) is cheating on his long-time girlfriend, Emily (Tara Reid...yes...she is actually ACTING!). Another friend named Jake (a funny performance by Micheal Leydon Campbell) has his own woes with finding the right girl because she always ends up in bed with Cal until he finds himself falling in love with Emily. I loved how in spite of the script having a few flaws and even having some outrageous moments the film wraps up in a sweet happy ending with Paulina Porizkova leaving the scene with that wickedly sexy smile and a wink. Wonderful performances by the actors and well written script.

Knots is a comedy in the same field as the movie, Closer. Not nearly as hardcore as Closer was, and due to the fact this was a comedy, it was much lighter. I can not figure out why the writers decided on the name 'Knots', but as near as I can guess, trying to keep up with the story is like trying to unravel a knot.

This is the story of 6 people. Dave (Scott Cohen) and Greta (Annabeth Gish) are a married couple who have just moved into a new home. Their marriage is lifeless and seems to be suffering. Cal (John Stamos) is a fashion photographer who thinks nothing of cheating on his girlfriend, Emily (Tara Reid). In fact, he thinks is makes his relationship stronger, because if he is with many different women and still comes back to Emily, it proves that she is the one for him. He reminds me of Stifler from the American Pie series. Jake (Michael Leydon Campbell) is a poor sap who has no luck with women. Usually, it is either Cal or someone else who gets further with his dates than Jake, himself.

Finally, we have Lily (Paulina Porizkova). She is the wild card and the instigator of most of the problems in the movie. She seems to take pleasure in Dave's pain and the fact that she is mostly the cause of it. She is a lawyer with no scruples or inhibitions. In Dave's own words "She's a sick, twisted woman".

Dave comes home early one day to find Greta in bed with Lily and this is where his life starts to come apart. Both Jake and Cal's lives become a mess as well, because of a domino effect of sorts stemming from Dave and Greta's problems. This is where the movie began to remind me of Closer. You are never quite sure who is going to end up with who at the end of the movie, although Knots was not as well thought out.

The acting is mediocre. No one really stood out as a great actor here. John Stamos was probably the most entertaining and charismatic. Paulina Porizkova has not aged well for a supermodel and is a shell of her old self (which is still much better than many other actresses). The only bad performance was by, as much as I hate to say it, Tara Reid. She did not show off her acting skills here, or maybe she did, but that would mean that she is not very skilled at all.

Not a bad movie. I can recommend if you want a lighter, funnier version of Closer (lighter but by no means for kids). It is not a great movie by any means, but you can find yourself watching much worse than this. 6.5/10

(Titled "Sex, Love, & Lies" on network TV.) The story starts with Dave (Scott Cohen) and Greta (Annabeth Gish), somewhat stale in their marriage, moving to a different apartment in New York. Dave thinks that he paid the movers too much, this place isn't that big once all their things are in it, a strong hint of hopelessness. But he is a straight-arrow faithful guy who loves his wife, but monthly sex with Greta has lost its magic. A host of other old and new friends enter the fray to help Dave and Greta figure it all out, in this very offbeat comedy. Many will not enjoy the loose play with conventional morals. SPOILERS FOLLOW. Dave catches the eye of pretty attorney, Lily (model Paulina Porizkova), but introduces her to friend Jake, and when Lily resists Jake's dinner invite, Dave suggests he and Greta go too, and Lily agrees. At dinner, when Greta seems to object that Dave was out with "the boys", Lily suggests a "girls night out." Later, Dave comes home early to find Greta and Lily in bed, nude! Dave is rightly upset and baffled, the three guys get together to figure out what to do, but Dave is surprised to have divorce papers served to him at work. Angrily, he goes to Lily's law office, and after some histrionics kisses her, and they have wild sex on her desk! Loose lips Jake encounters Emily (Tara Reid) at a bar, tells her about his friend Cal (John Stamos) and his wild sex between meetings with his fiancée, who happens to be Emily. Emily shows up at Cal's, finds a woman, decks Cal -- twice. The three women get together to figure things out. Other things develop and, when Dave goes home to get some things, Greta shows up, they talk, the passion returns, they have the best sex ever, Dave thinks things will be OK between them, but in bed Greta says, "I'm a lesbian." They all go on to Cal and Emily's wedding, after Cal promised fidelity and signed a pre-nup that would give Emily 70% if he cheats on her. But Dave knows (photos of Cal and Lily) Cal can't, and speaks up to halt the wedding. Lily calls Jake so he can comfort and leave with Emily. Dave and Greta sit in a pew and talk, "Friends?" "Friends." "Good", says Greta, "because I'm pregnant."

"Knots" a predictable sex comedy from director of no note, Greg Lombardo. It is short on both sex and comedy, but is almost worth watching because A) John Stamos is actually good in it. B) You get to see Ric Ocasek's hot, Czech wife naked and C) Tara Reid surprisingly doesn't suck in it. The down side? The sex is totally tame and it's really not very funny. The rest of the cast is serviceable. Scott Cohen (from The Gilmore Girls) and Annabeth Gish (from The West Wing) play are bored married couple and Paulina Porizkova plays a vixen that reaps hell into their lives for no good reason at all, but ultimately we don't really care about any of the characters as the screenplay limps to it's obvious, group hug conclusion. "For No Good Reason At All". That would have been a good tag line for "Knots". You have been warned.