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40 Days and 40 Nights

***

Cinema Releases - May 31, 2002

Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA. 94 minutes. Directed by Michael Lehmann. Written by Rob Perez. Starring Josh Hartnett, Shannyn Sossamon, Paulo Costanzo, Adam Trese, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Lorin Heath, Aaron Trainor, Glenn Fitzgerald, Monet Mazur, Michael C. Maronna, Vinessa Shaw.

Many former addicts talk with gratitude about how their 'support networks' helped them through recovery. I have no idea what they're talking about. When I decided to quit drinking, it became clear that I couldn't have hit upon a better way to get offered free alcohol if I had been looking. People were more concerned about whether I'd be interesting at parties than whether beer was competing with my energy; when I told them I had gone sober, they started to look worried, tried to talk me out of the decision, tried to feed me booze and asked, "But... why?"

I found myself laughing with recognition at "40 Days and 40 Nights", in which Josh Hartnett breaks up with his long-time girlfriend, screws everything in sight, figures that he's doing himself more harm than good and decides to give up sex for lent. All forms of sex are out of the question if Hartnett is to succeed in clearing his head: "No penetration, no masturbation, no kissing, no nibbling, no sucking."

Hartnett's friends seem threatened. His flatmate brings Australian women home and declares, "Come on, man, there's a reason they call it down under!" A girl at the office gives him a frank lecture about how only women are supposed to be able to abstain from sex, and he dare not mess with the balance of power. Even the parish priests seem to think that taking a vow of celibacy is a dodgy idea.

"40 Days and 40 Nights" is a surprisingly erotic movie, with loving photography capturing the temptation that surrounds the main character. As soon as Hartnett quits sex, it gets more easily accessible than ever. There's a girl named Candy who takes the poor guy (or very lucky guy, depending on how much you care about vows) into the Xerox room, opens her legs, photocopies her butt and writes her phone number on the print. Shannyn Sossamon plays the charmer at the local launderette who just may be the girl Hartnett has been looking for. And when frustration reaches its most extreme pitch, Hartnett starts to see things: "I could swear," he confesses at one point, "that I was at a café this morning that was sponsoring Hot Women With No Bras Day."

This is a movie full of sex jokes, but they don't involve mechanics and fluids so much as the nature of sex and the way it governs young life. Hartnett is sincere and engaging, even when running around like he's going to explode, but it's his situation that gets laughs. The last appearance of Hartnett's ex-girlfriend is in bad taste, and there's a scene involving flowers that displays loving camerawork but a wholly unrealistic view of how people actually move, but apart from that, the movie realises its ideas well. I liked the way Hartnett's friends start a website taking bets on how long he will last, and I liked such lines as, "Do you know how many hours I spent looking for that? One! That's a long time to look for porn!"

Oh, and the soundtrack features INXS, which is always a groovy turn-up.

COPYRIGHT© 2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani

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