Retroskeptic: 40 Days and 40 Nights

The concept of Retro Skeptic works like this: rather than review a movie I have seen recently, I analyze a film based on what I remember about it some time later. A film's true impact can only be measured in context, and when it was present, there was an incomplete picture of context. Also, how memorable is a film? The rules are simple; review a movie that I haven't seen in a while, and I'm not allowed to look anything up on IMDb, Wikipedia, or anything, I can only evaluate it's merits based on what I remember about it.

The film in question this time is 40 Days & 40 Nights (2002, and I think it was released in Spring to capitalize on the Easter demographic). I first saw this in theaters during it's initial run, and I may have encountered it on cable a few times since then when I was home from school visiting my parents. Bottom line: I may have seen this movie three times.

The film opens on a montage of home movies that provides an ellipsis of a relationship between a character that I'm pretty sure was named Josh and is also played by Josh Hartnett and his girlfriend, who was named Ashley maybe. So we see that they used to be really happy, but somewhere along the line the relationship soured and she dumped him. Josh is in a low place, depressed and whatnot, but he salves his depression by having a lot of wanton, casual sex with random women (including one whom it seems slept with him to apologize for having spilled coffee on Josh). Everything about this should be swell, but when Josh is having this sex, he keeps seeing this crack forming on the ceiling above him. His roommate, the stoner from Road Trip (Paul Costanzo, I want to say) is no help because he brazenly likes having casual sex. Josh's brother, a Catholic priest is also no help, but then Josh talks to the Chief Priest (that's a thing, right?) who tells him about Lent, because despite Josh being a Catholic, he's never heard of Lent before. Josh decides to give up all sexual contact in every form for the movie title. Oh and somewhere in here, Ashley gets engaged which makes Josh more despondent.

Cue a music montage where Josh throws away all his porn. Now this plan of his would be all well and good, save for the fact that Josh's coworkers at an internet-selling business learn of his plan and make a betting structure to see how long he'll last. Also, Josh meets a cute girl, who I'm going to say was named something vaguely west coast-y, like Serene (played by Shannyn Sossamon, and aside here, what the hell happened to her?) at the laundromat and they start chatting in that early relationship kind of way. She clearly likes him, and he her, and then Serene gets mad at Josh when she learns of his weird sexless Lent thing. Serene works at a net-nanny company, because in the early 2000's every 20-something living in San Francisco apparently had to have some sort of internet related job. Maybe their was a city ordinance or something. Oh, and I think Maggie Gyllenhaal was Serene's co-worker.

So despite this hiccup, Josh and Serene start seeing each other, and at one point they have sex, kind of, using a feather as a proxy. Josh's commitment gets tested in a couple of ways in the meantime; his boss decides to follow Josh's lead and also gives up on sex to get back at his repressive wife. Two of his female coworkers corner Josh in a supply closet because they're worried his bet will take away the power of women, further re-enforcing the idea of a worldwide woman conspiracy. One of his male co-workers wants to win the bet, so he tries to slip a priapism causing pill into Josh's drink, but the boss drinks it instead. And somewhere in here, Josh visits his sexually forthcoming parents and Josh's priest brother is leaving the priesthood because he wants to diddle nuns. This is all leading up to act 3, where Josh finally reveals it was Ashley who indirectly initiated the Lent thing (not, you know, his sexual Bacchanalia), Ashley's engagement gets broken off, and she hears about the bet. Sensing a way to make some cash, Ashley goes into Josh's apartment on the last night of Lent and has sex with Josh while he's unconscious and handcuffed to a bed. Serene is heartbroken when she sees Ashley leaving, and Josh wins her back by buying her laundry detergent at the laundromat where they originally met. Then they have a lot of sex, because Lent is over, baby! Oh and there was a character named Bagel Guy, who I'm pretty sure was the elder Pete from the Adventures of Pete and Pete.

So ultimately I think this was a modestly forgettable romantic comedy; it has the fairly requisite funny friends, the story was serviceable, and the stars are likable. It's this last one that is of the most interest, though because the casting of Hartnett and Sossamon was clearly intended to capitalize on what was seen as rising star power for both of them at the time. Hartnett did Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down around this same time, and Sossamon had done Knight's Tale the year before but neither had done much since (excluding a very small role for Hartnett in Sin City). Most entertaining is that in this universe, not having sex is not only a sin on some level (I think a character asks of Josh early on in if he “hates his penis”) but also toxic – Josh near the end is pale, gaunt, and sallow with all the not-sex. This is a fun little movie; light and frothy, perfect even, for a spring afternoon on TBS.