Sexual Life

this movies was so bad in so many ways but let's start with the end. it has no ending...they tried i guess to give it an open ending...but they failed...miserably. The short stories have no salt and pepper..no spice....nothing to make them special...

the characters are flat...trapped in a box of little imagination and bad acting... because the actors really don't seem like real people, it's like bad theater: everything is staged, no real emotions, no real situations, no real conversations

and i guess it's also the scripts fault...that brings nothing new...nothing special..nothing original...

In a sense, this film is a variation on "Closer," without the sinister edges. It follows the lives, particularly the sexual lives of eight or 10 characters. By linking the characters through chance encounters and physical attraction, the film weaves a tapestry of deceit, hunger, yearning, and the longing to lead other lives. Like "Closer," the characters flirt, dally and feel the sting of regret as they explore the edges of their sexual confines. Throughout the film, characters step outside the roles to which their lives confine them. High-class prostitute (Azura Skye) abruptly quits the job in search of a new life. The vice mayor's son Jerry (Dule Hill) expresses his frustration at always being "the good son." The wedding photographer (Tom Scott) wants to quit paying for sex and find a permanent real relationship. They are lives of longing broken by moments of intense heat. The characters are well-drawn. But, like "Closer," the view ultimately finds it hard to empathize with them. Like the aftermath of sex without live, the movie leaves an empty feeling.

I admit it... I watched this movie for the title. I live in a highly censored country yet they were showing it on Star Movies! I expected B-movie tawdry but was rewarded with a good movie about sex.

The movie is a decent exploration of the ripple effect of sex -- not a masterpiece -- but a thoughtful look at the subject.

It's not a spoiler to say that the story line jumps from partner to partner through a series of sexual encounters. At times, the links loop around to reveal connection even the character are unaware of.

It reminded me of the STD warnings that when you have sex with a person, you are also having sex with every one of THEIR partners.

With any ensemble caste movie, the acting isn't equal but there really is no bad acting in this film. I thought Anne Heche really stood out and her performance makes this a "must see" for Heche fans (like me.)

If I was a TV director, I'd take this idea and turn it into a mini-series. Each one of the sub-plots could have been given given its own 73-minute treatment and explored a few of the loose ends that could not be developed in 96 minutes.

The idea of the film seems to be inspired in Max Ophuls' "La Ronde", that classic French film that showed how much life is inter connected, which in itself was based on Arthur Schnitzler's play. The theme has been explored in other films, and it probably was what the director of "Sexual Life", Ken Kwapis, wanted to explore.

Each person we watch from the beginning, has something to do with someone else, and so on. Sex is what seems to hold these people together. We start with the high priced prostitute and end up with her. In between we get to see how a group of young Los Angeles residents having sexual encounters that are the basis of their coming into each other's orbits. Sex seems to be not a big deal with them and nothing is forever, as we watch them going in their own ways to a new relationship without any guilt at all.

The cast assembled do a pretty good job in their different portrayals. Azira Skye, as the prostitute has some good moments. Kevin Corrigan, Anne Heche, Shirley Knight, Fionnula Flanagan, Kerry Washington, Tom Everett Scott, James Legros and the beautiful Elizabeth Banks, do excellent work under the guidance of Mr. Kwapis.

"Sexual Life" has a great contemporary look. While sex seems to be what consumes all the parties in the movie, it makes for a good excuse to watch some of the best young actors working in movies today having fun.

Writer/Director Ken Kwapis ('About a Boy', 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants', episodes on TV series 'ER', 'The Office', 'Malcolm in the Middle', etc) knows his ways around the ups and downs of contemporary relationships, weighing the importance of the physical aspect of the union against the para-physical benefits and makes no prescription for which is of more importance. SEXUAL LIFE explores several couples whose married or about to be married status receives the testing of infidelity.

A wedding photographer is frustrated with his executive girlfriend's lack of intimacy and seeks physical satisfaction through an upscale prostitute who has her own rather solid ground views of her business. The photographer's girlfriend is finding physical satisfaction with her married architect boss who in turn is trying to hide his infidelity from his wife who in turn feels she must seek outside satisfaction with an old college flame who happens to be gay and she turns to a hotel clerk at the point of a fantasy liaison for gratification. The hotel clerk happens to be having an affair with an engaged African American girl and is frustrated about her impending marriage to a frustratedly 'correct' African American male who feels he is following a proscribed duty and seeks attention from the prostitute who opens the whole story. How these intersecting couples work out their dilemmas and resolve their individual needs for expanded physical needs in the presence of the safety of relationships is the clever puzzle Kwapis presents - with the conclusions primarily left up to us, the viewers.

The cast is homogeneously fine and attractive - Eion Bailey, Elizabeth Banks, Fionnula Flanagan, Anne Heche, Dule Hill, Sam Jaeger, Kerry Washington, Steven Weber, Steven Williams, Shirley Knight, James LeGros, Tom Everett Scott, and Azura Skye along with the minor characters. Kwapis keeps the flow integrated so that the story does indeed seem like a series of coincidences. The sexual scenes are more suggested than graphic and should not offend even the most skeptical viewer. This was, after all, a movie made for Showtime TV, but it stands very well as a tightly conceived and acted lesson about relationships. Well worth watching. Grady Harp