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Cheap jokes and few surprises doom 40 Days and 40 Nights, in which a young man swears off sex, then meets the girl of his dreams.
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 28, 2002
Giving up sex for Lent isn't a big deal for some people. Some of us are married.
Sorry, that was a cheap joke that most self-respecting comedians wouldn't use. But that's the kind of humor on display for much of Michael Lehmann's 40 Days and 40 Nights, a movie dedicated to the proposition that abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.
At least, that's the way it goes for Matt Sullivan (Josh Hartnett), a Web page designer pining for the girlfriend who jilted him. If she won't have him, nobody will. Matt forsakes all sexual activity, even self-gratification, to prove what? Such sacrifice won't reclaim his lover and certainly throws a kink into Matt's ability to move on with his romantic life. But it's a reason for a movie, and that's all that matters.
The humor could be summarized in a one-panel Hustler cartoon with extraordinary trouser bulges and weary, sex-starved expressions. Yes, Matt douses his privates with ice water at one point and, at another, imagines every woman naked around him.
Lehmann's polished presentation of such predictable material doesn't make it seem any fresher. Matt's celibacy becomes an office pool to guess when he'll give up, and even his parents (Barry Newman, Mary Gross) have a scene to discuss their sex life while Matt blanches.
But when you read between the tired lines, 40 Days and 40 Nights has a few bright spots going for it -- mostly Hartnett's evolving screen presence, more animated than his previous poster-boy efforts. Playing uptight makes him appear looser, creating a cumulative vulnerability that never sneaked past those cheekbones and slitted eyelids before.
Meanwhile, co-star Shannyn Sossamon confirms the magnetism suggested by her only other film role, as the princess wooed by Heath Ledger to a David Bowie beat in A Knight's Tale. Here she plays Erica, a free spirit who challenges Matt's resolve. Sossamon may tire of people comparing her face to Angelina Jolie's, but the resemblance is striking, although hers is a girl-next-door sexiness rather than Jolie's predatory eroticism.
Lehmann occasionally creates something, such as a breast-cloud dream fantasy, that makes his movie temporarily special. But the movie has no comedic arc, no peaking of Matt's pique to generate a crescendo of laughter. The movie maintains the same tone throughout, like continually plucking a guitar string that's a half-note off-key. No conclusions about celibacy are drawn; in effect, it's the horny ones who triumph. 40 Days and 40 Nights turns sexual intelligence into a meaningless quickie.
Grade: C+
Director: Michael Lehmann
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Shannyn Sossamon, Michael Maronna, Vinessa Shaw, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Screenplay: Rob Perez
Rating: R; strong sexual content, nudity, profanity
Running time: 92 min.