'40 Days' is crude and rude but still entertaining

DANIEL MCLELLAN, FOR THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Friday, March 22, 2002

The poster for "40 Days and 40 Nights" shows a relaxed Josh Hartnett with a rather blatant erection portrayed by the movies title and credits. While this isn't the subtlest piece of advertising, it does fairly represent the new comedy from Miramax.

Matt (Josh Hartnett) is a Web site designer obsessing over a particularly bad break-up with Nicole -- a rather nasty woman whom he had no real reason to be with anyway. His problems have manifested as mid-coitus hallucinations in which a gigantic black hole opens in his ceiling. Deciding that his problems with relationships are due to his inability to find intimacy outside of sex, Matt decides to swear off it for Lent.

But he doesn't just swear off sex -- stroking, fondling, sucking and self-gratification all must go. So begins a quest no one believes he can complete. Everything is going great until he meets Erica at the laundromat and becomes smitten. Then things get complicated in a "Three's Company" kind of way.

While the story is crude, rude and lewd, the execution of "40" is excellent. A guy gives up sex because of a bad breakup -- sounds like the perfect excuse to parade hot, naked and seductive women in front of the camera for 90 minutes to tease him, which is sort of true, but the movie is funnier than that. A lot of the gags, some of which have been running on the television for the past few months, hit, and a few miss.

From feeling up Mrs. Butterworth to listening to his dad's talk about sexual prowess and hip replacements, Matt is a classic tortured protagonist, not in a sad way but a funny one. It's genuinely amusing to watch Hartnett stumble from one inexplicably sexy and embarrassing situation to another.

This is due to a creative and energetic performance by Hartnett who, other than his looks and name, could be more than the latest teen-dream hack actor. His expressions and exasperation are perfect and show a gift for comic timing. Shannyn Sossamon is just fine as the love interest and a cute and quirky foil to horn-dog Matt. Her character, however, is only sketched; Erica falls into all the standard romantic comedy character traps. She overreacts and forgives too easily at various points throughout the film. When Matt tries to explain his vow she doesn't give him a chance, but when he is caught with another woman while handcuffed to his bed, it only takes a five-minute scene to reconcile the couple.

Speaking of the handcuffed-to-the-bed scene: In the film Matt is handcuffed to a bed when his ex-girlfriend, in one of her attempts to mess with his head, comes in and makes love to him. Now Matt is drunk, half asleep and convinced Nicole is Erica, while she has sex with him. This scene is inserted to create tension between Erica and Matt, which it does, but the filmmakers seem to have forgotten something while putting together the final cut -- that's rape.

Now, romantic comedies have a grand tradition of making light of serious things -- depression ("Sleepless in Seattle"), stalking ("Sleepless in Seattle" and countless others), but rape is a little extreme.

Besides that horribly offensive scene, "40 Days and 40 Nights" is a perfectly acceptable sex comedy and a slightly shaky romance film, sort of a love story for the "American Pie" set.

Daniel McLellan is a freshman at Olympia High School.

'40 Days and 40 Nights'

* * 1/2

- Rating: R.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

On the Web:

- '40 Days and 40 Nights'

Star guide

Superior * * * *

Good * * *

Fair * *

Poor *

Movie ratings

G - General audiences.

PG - Parental guidance suggested.

PG-13 - Parental guidance sug-gested for children under 13.

R - Under 17 requires adult guardian.

NC-17 - No one under 17 admitted.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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