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Not sweet enough
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
Cameron Diaz, Selma Blair and Christina Applegate play girls who want too badly to have fun in The Sweetest Thing. |
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 11, 2002
Cameron Diaz looks good in The Sweetest Thing, but ''character development'' must have had too many syllables for the filmmakers.
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Sure, girls just want to have fun, but shouldn't they also be concerned about the audience's enjoyment? The career women behaving like teeny-boppers in The Sweetest Thing certainly aren't.
The screenplay was written by Nancy M. Pimental, known to Comedy Central viewers as the sidekick who used to help contestants Win Ben Stein's Money. What she did on the show is what she perpetrates on screen, a recitation of bawdy jokes and suggestive puns delivered with the smug delusion that she's A) sexy and B) funny. There's an air of pride in Pimental's goofing around, as if talking dirty is some kind of feminist statement. But where's the advancement in emulating Porky's?
The Sweetest Thing is just another excuse for Cameron Diaz to do her trademark butt-wagging routine every few minutes. If Diaz played Elizabeth I, she would shake her booty on the throne. It is, admittedly, a finely toned derriere. However, movies require some character development beyond hottie gyrations. Pouty lips don't count. Diaz looks good, acts dumb and squeals a lot as director Roger Kumble searches for the best camera angles to showcase her asset.
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
Thomas Jane plays the prey and Cameron Diaz the predator in The Sweetest Thing.
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Diaz plays Christina Walters, a tease-'em-and-leave-'em type playing the dating game to avoid emotional commitment. Christina is doing her sassy thing when she meets Peter Donahue (Thomas Jane) at a nightclub bachelor party and swaps a few mandatory romantic comedy insults. Could it be love, or curiosity because Peter is the only person in the place not fascinated with her rear end? Christina's self-absorbed ways make the latter, less amusing choice most likely.
Assisted by her equally egocentric friend Courtney Rockliffe (Christina Applegate), Christina embarks on a road trip to the wedding Peter's attending, although not in the capacity she expects. Pimental took the hoary premise of second thoughts at the altar, stripped it of romantic purpose and replaced it with oral sex gags and exploding urinals.
At one point, the women are shopping for clothes and one asks: "Do we have time for a movie montage?" That kicks off yet another annoying Pretty Woman ripoff, but the fact that anyone purposely pads an already feeble 84-minute movie (counting outtakes and end credits), then rubs it in our faces is the sourest thing.
The Sweetest Thing
- Grade: D
- Director: Roger Kumble
- Cast: Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate, Selma Blair, Thomas Jane, Parker Posey, Jason Bateman
- Screenplay: Nancy M. Pimental
- Rating: R; strong sexual content, profanity
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