THE OPPOSITE OF SEX (1998) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: Don Roos Starring: Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Lisa Kudrow, Ivan Sergei, Lyle Lovett, Johnny Galecki, Colin Ferguson
Love. Sex. Motherhood. Matrimony. Obsession. These, along with others, are just some of the American ideals that are given a good skewering in "The Opposite of Sex," a film that is as hilarious as it is blunt about life, and is as edgy as it is trashy. We have here a refreshing, amazingly acted, and sometimes even romantic comedy that holds more outrageous twists and selish and/or shallow characters than the entire run of "Melrose Place" ever will, and makes itself extremely entertaining thanks to a fresh format and a plot that just never stops becoming more and more weird.
The key to the whole film is that at some point, all of the characters becomes selfish in one way or another, all because of ideals they hold higher than anything else. They bullshit themselves about things that don't matter as much, and the one character who doesn't bullshit is the film's protagonist, Deedee Truitt, a 16-year-old bottle-blond Lousiana trailer park scumbucket who just happens to be the composite of every smart blond from any film matched with every single femme fatale to ever grace the screen. Two catches: she's played to perfection by Christina Ricci, who is finally coming into her own as a serious actress by destroying her childhood movie career (and sucessfully); and she's our friendly narrator for the entire duration of the film.
The film is just jam-packed with plot, so here's a quick run-down: Deedee runs away from home with her one-testicled Christian-as-hell boyfriend following the death of her tryannical stepfather, and ends up ditching him so she can stay with her wealthy half-brother, Bill (Martin Donovan), an openly gay school teacher. She soon seduces his young dim live-in lover, Matt (Ivan Sergei), who allegedly impregnates her after a couple romps in the sack, and upon Bill's discovery of their tryst, the two hike off with $10000 of Bill's. That's only in the first fifteen minutes.
I won't reveal much more, but I will reveal some of the important characters in the story, the most notable being Lucia (a non-dim Lisa Kudrow), a bitter shrew who's opposed to sex and is friends with Bill because her brother, Tom, was Bill's boyfriend for years until his sorta-recent death, leaving the two in different forms of mourning. Also on the character list is Carl (Lyle Lovett), the lonely local sheriff who's forced to investigate Bill because of molestation charges brought on by a gay ex-pupil of his, Jason (Johnny Galecki), yet another weird character in the film who's funniest moment comes towards the beginning when his pelvic skwirming is explained as a "new piercing."
As the 100 minutes of the film fly by, covering everything from a sloppy stakeout to even a murder and a birth, this film completely trashes every ideal that its characters bring up, all skewered by our lovely narrator, Deedee, who's cynicism is so seductive that some scenes I almost prayed for her to come in with obnoxious commentary...and she did. Two characters will be discovering they are finally in love and Deedee will suddenly come onto the soundtrack and say "Yuck." Just what we were thinking. Deedee gives the film the exact feel it is going for, that of our reaction to people's bullshit actions at that point in our lives when everything seems phony. Like Holden Caulfield, Deedee is convinced that everyone is not being true to themselves, and that they are the only ones in the entire world who are actually not lying to everyone else, even when she's twisting people's arms and screwing people over. She's just being true to her nature, after all.
Nevertheless, the characters in this film who are not Deedee are for the most part likable, especially Bill, the poor guy who's career and basically entire life are trampled over by the results of Deedee's actions, but who still retains his dignity and respect. And the film even boils down and finds depth in the character of Lucia, who's at first just a bitch with a whole bunch of great one-liners up her sleeve, but then discovers everything she didn't know in the first place by finding love with the last person in the cast you'd think would be a suitable mate.
It even deepens Deedee, who's unswerving for the basically the entire film, and comes out of it as the one character who doesn't discover something about themselves after all the shit has come down. She comes off as a lot like Linda Fiorentino in "The Last Seduction," and is played with the same amount of talent by Ricci, who has finally come across as one of the best younger actresses around, and one of the few, like Jodie Foster, to make smart career moves by starring in risky movies. Her character, who says in the beginning "I don't have a heart of gold, and I don't grow one later," is almost the tragic character of the film, the one who spoils everything yet learns nothing. Yet by the end, we're still not sure if we want her to grow a heart or not. Would it spoil the movie or wouldn't it?
The film was written and directed by Don Roos, writer of such chick flicks as "Single White Female" and "Boys on the Side," but who has finally struck gold with "The Opposite of Sex," his directorial debut. It has all the edginess and hilarity it needs to suceed, and never comes across as cheap or bitchy. His direction is also extremely competent, and he proves himself a great director of good actors, getting amazing performances from everyone, most especially Donovan and Kudrow, the latter who proves she so much more than the ultimate vapid actress. Even Lyle Lovett's apparent woodiness in acting actually works with his character, who ultimately comes off as sweet. But it's really Ricci's picture, and she embodies her with so much flare that she's impossible to hate or root against, mostly thanks to her narration, which is exactly what we want to hear when things are happening in this film even if they aren't always the human. And weirdly enough, the best thing about this film is that it does eventually allow humanity to seep in without corrupting its integrity.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
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