Sexual Life

"Sexual Life" takes a superficial look at the romantic inclinations or disinclinations of several disparate but loosely interconnected Los Angeles couples as it flows serially from one couple to the next, eventually coming full circle in the end. The common denominator is sex and other relationship salients though the film is quite tame and has a kind of mellow and understated feel to it. The couples range from a call girl and her client to a married couple to a betrothed couple, etc. all obviously carefully planned to provide a range of possibilities for both auteur and audience. Though there's little new to be found between the credits, this is a pleasant little dramedy which handles the subject matter delicately in deference to more edgy and sexually explicit genre motifs. "Sexual Life", built from B listers and a step down for Heche, is a winsome little indie for those who want to glean it from broadcast. (B-)

Writer/Director Ken Kwapis ('About a Boy', 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants', episodes on TV series 'ER', 'The Office', 'Malcolm in the Middle', etc) knows his ways around the ups and downs of contemporary relationships, weighing the importance of the physical aspect of the union against the para-physical benefits and makes no prescription for which is of more importance. SEXUAL LIFE explores several couples whose married or about to be married status receives the testing of infidelity.

A wedding photographer is frustrated with his executive girlfriend's lack of intimacy and seeks physical satisfaction through an upscale prostitute who has her own rather solid ground views of her business. The photographer's girlfriend is finding physical satisfaction with her married architect boss who in turn is trying to hide his infidelity from his wife who in turn feels she must seek outside satisfaction with an old college flame who happens to be gay and she turns to a hotel clerk at the point of a fantasy liaison for gratification. The hotel clerk happens to be having an affair with an engaged African American girl and is frustrated about her impending marriage to a frustratedly 'correct' African American male who feels he is following a proscribed duty and seeks attention from the prostitute who opens the whole story. How these intersecting couples work out their dilemmas and resolve their individual needs for expanded physical needs in the presence of the safety of relationships is the clever puzzle Kwapis presents - with the conclusions primarily left up to us, the viewers.

The cast is homogeneously fine and attractive - Eion Bailey, Elizabeth Banks, Fionnula Flanagan, Anne Heche, Dule Hill, Sam Jaeger, Kerry Washington, Steven Weber, Steven Williams, Shirley Knight, James LeGros, Tom Everett Scott, and Azura Skye along with the minor characters. Kwapis keeps the flow integrated so that the story does indeed seem like a series of coincidences. The sexual scenes are more suggested than graphic and should not offend even the most skeptical viewer. This was, after all, a movie made for Showtime TV, but it stands very well as a tightly conceived and acted lesson about relationships. Well worth watching. Grady Harp

In a sense, this film is a variation on "Closer," without the sinister edges. It follows the lives, particularly the sexual lives of eight or 10 characters. By linking the characters through chance encounters and physical attraction, the film weaves a tapestry of deceit, hunger, yearning, and the longing to lead other lives. Like "Closer," the characters flirt, dally and feel the sting of regret as they explore the edges of their sexual confines. Throughout the film, characters step outside the roles to which their lives confine them. High-class prostitute (Azura Skye) abruptly quits the job in search of a new life. The vice mayor's son Jerry (Dule Hill) expresses his frustration at always being "the good son." The wedding photographer (Tom Scott) wants to quit paying for sex and find a permanent real relationship. They are lives of longing broken by moments of intense heat. The characters are well-drawn. But, like "Closer," the view ultimately finds it hard to empathize with them. Like the aftermath of sex without live, the movie leaves an empty feeling.

I usually enjoying choosing a film rental which does not tout big-name actors. Fresh faces & talent breathe new life into the medium. "Talent," however, is key. "Sexual Life" certainly has ambition, but the ambition never gets out of the gate. The narratives remain superficial; the acting is not of a high caliber. The film was definitely over-edited.

With 9 characters, one would hope that a film entitled "Sexual Life" might explore something more than boy-on-girl sexual relationships. Yawn! There is one gay character, but he is on screen for 3 minutes, sharing a dinner with Anne Heche's character.

Azura Skye shows promise here. She should have received top billing.

this movies was so bad in so many ways but let's start with the end. it has no ending...they tried i guess to give it an open ending...but they failed...miserably. The short stories have no salt and pepper..no spice....nothing to make them special...

the characters are flat...trapped in a box of little imagination and bad acting... because the actors really don't seem like real people, it's like bad theater: everything is staged, no real emotions, no real situations, no real conversations

and i guess it's also the scripts fault...that brings nothing new...nothing special..nothing original...