American Love

(Titled "Sex, Love, & Lies" on network TV.) The story starts with Dave (Scott Cohen) and Greta (Annabeth Gish), somewhat stale in their marriage, moving to a different apartment in New York. Dave thinks that he paid the movers too much, this place isn't that big once all their things are in it, a strong hint of hopelessness. But he is a straight-arrow faithful guy who loves his wife, but monthly sex with Greta has lost its magic. A host of other old and new friends enter the fray to help Dave and Greta figure it all out, in this very offbeat comedy. Many will not enjoy the loose play with conventional morals. SPOILERS FOLLOW. Dave catches the eye of pretty attorney, Lily (model Paulina Porizkova), but introduces her to friend Jake, and when Lily resists Jake's dinner invite, Dave suggests he and Greta go too, and Lily agrees. At dinner, when Greta seems to object that Dave was out with "the boys", Lily suggests a "girls night out." Later, Dave comes home early to find Greta and Lily in bed, nude! Dave is rightly upset and baffled, the three guys get together to figure out what to do, but Dave is surprised to have divorce papers served to him at work. Angrily, he goes to Lily's law office, and after some histrionics kisses her, and they have wild sex on her desk! Loose lips Jake encounters Emily (Tara Reid) at a bar, tells her about his friend Cal (John Stamos) and his wild sex between meetings with his fiancée, who happens to be Emily. Emily shows up at Cal's, finds a woman, decks Cal -- twice. The three women get together to figure things out. Other things develop and, when Dave goes home to get some things, Greta shows up, they talk, the passion returns, they have the best sex ever, Dave thinks things will be OK between them, but in bed Greta says, "I'm a lesbian." They all go on to Cal and Emily's wedding, after Cal promised fidelity and signed a pre-nup that would give Emily 70% if he cheats on her. But Dave knows (photos of Cal and Lily) Cal can't, and speaks up to halt the wedding. Lily calls Jake so he can comfort and leave with Emily. Dave and Greta sit in a pew and talk, "Friends?" "Friends." "Good", says Greta, "because I'm pregnant."

I rented this movie the other night and was thoroughly surprised by how good it was. I'm not a real "indie" sort of guy, but I thought the story was great without being trite or falling into a lot of the traps that sometimes come with a comedy like this. The characters are well drawn and there are some real standout performances, especially from John Stamos, Paulina Porzikova, and the guy who played "Jake" - really funny! The plot covers six main characters and still manages to make perfect sense... all the while being pretty hysterical. Stamos' character has some great lines which I plan on using! All in all, great little movie.

It all begins with a bored married couple moving to Manhattan, huge happy faces on every box.

In an incredibly funny film about relationships (Director Greg Lombardo describes it as a comedy about our search for connection and the romantic disasters we survive along the way), Scott Cohen finds out painfully that his marriage is in trouble, and things unravel and ravel and unravel again from there. I have a feeling that quite a few quotes will end up here after the film gets a general release.

Paulina Porizkova, as a vixen with an evil grin who seems to enter the fray from all sides, is the big surprise, as she creates a supporting role deserving of an Academy Award nomination.

Also great are John Stamos, Annabeth Gish, and Tara Reid. I want the DVD now! Edit: I've got it!

This film is an attempt to mix an (American) Office style lead character with a watered down Woody Allen writing style. However, this attempt at dry and edgy fails due to uninspired writing and sub standard acting. It is closer to a feature length episode of 'Sex in the City', but somehow managing even less in the way of intuitive observations about relationships.

I assume women will find this film ignorant and unrealistic and men will find this incredibly dull and unable to relate to any of the one dimensional male characters, so I'm not sure who will enjoy it (but what do I know about women since I'm just a man). What is most confusing is how none of the characters managed to endear themselves to me. This is similar to any other modern romantic comedy about the difficulty of relationships, but fails to make the viewer care if any of the people end up either alone, happy, sad or dead etc. I could be missing the point, and this might be intended as a hilarious roller-coaster of a film, and not anything to do with realistic characters, but if so, it is even further from the mark the mark than I thought. One major point that only deserves a few simple words: the lead character is absolutely terrible.

The good points about this film are that the direction isn't that bad, Stamos is good, the pacing is fine and the plot had potential. This is not a horrible film, its just lacking in the most important areas that this sort of film needs to excel in to be good: believable comedy acting and precise writing.

Avoid, but not like the plague, and instead 'When Harry Met Sally' or 'The Break Up' are much better films that do something similar to this film, but better.

Knots is a comedy in the same field as the movie, Closer. Not nearly as hardcore as Closer was, and due to the fact this was a comedy, it was much lighter. I can not figure out why the writers decided on the name 'Knots', but as near as I can guess, trying to keep up with the story is like trying to unravel a knot.

This is the story of 6 people. Dave (Scott Cohen) and Greta (Annabeth Gish) are a married couple who have just moved into a new home. Their marriage is lifeless and seems to be suffering. Cal (John Stamos) is a fashion photographer who thinks nothing of cheating on his girlfriend, Emily (Tara Reid). In fact, he thinks is makes his relationship stronger, because if he is with many different women and still comes back to Emily, it proves that she is the one for him. He reminds me of Stifler from the American Pie series. Jake (Michael Leydon Campbell) is a poor sap who has no luck with women. Usually, it is either Cal or someone else who gets further with his dates than Jake, himself.

Finally, we have Lily (Paulina Porizkova). She is the wild card and the instigator of most of the problems in the movie. She seems to take pleasure in Dave's pain and the fact that she is mostly the cause of it. She is a lawyer with no scruples or inhibitions. In Dave's own words "She's a sick, twisted woman".

Dave comes home early one day to find Greta in bed with Lily and this is where his life starts to come apart. Both Jake and Cal's lives become a mess as well, because of a domino effect of sorts stemming from Dave and Greta's problems. This is where the movie began to remind me of Closer. You are never quite sure who is going to end up with who at the end of the movie, although Knots was not as well thought out.

The acting is mediocre. No one really stood out as a great actor here. John Stamos was probably the most entertaining and charismatic. Paulina Porizkova has not aged well for a supermodel and is a shell of her old self (which is still much better than many other actresses). The only bad performance was by, as much as I hate to say it, Tara Reid. She did not show off her acting skills here, or maybe she did, but that would mean that she is not very skilled at all.

Not a bad movie. I can recommend if you want a lighter, funnier version of Closer (lighter but by no means for kids). It is not a great movie by any means, but you can find yourself watching much worse than this. 6.5/10