Whipped
If you ever read an issue of "Maxim," "G.Q." or "Playboy" you'd probably think all men are single studs who occupy most of their time with either fashion, money or scoring with chicks. "Whipped" is like the filmed version of those magazines. I didn't think these kinds of guys actually existed, but this film goes a long way to show they do and the result is a funny but kind of frightening story.
The movie has all the makings of an indie flick - no name stars (except Amanda Peet), shot mostly indoors with mediocre lighting and only five central characters who push the story along by their dialogue alone. It's also very honest and unapologetic in its depiction of the characters, especially the three male leads who curse up a storm and whose sole purpose for living is to have sex with as many women as possible.
Those guys are Brad, Zeke and Jonathon. Brad's a suave Wall Street guy who can schmooze women in trendy bars and clubs. Zeke's a coffeehouse hermit who doesn't seem to have a job besides writing screenplays. He picks up women right off the street and says he almost always gets some on the first (and usually last) date. Jonathon's the more sensitive guy who'd rather have something of a connection first but deep down he's just as horny and perverse as the other two. There's also Eric, the married guy of the group who's been ostracized because of that. When the guys get together every Sunday morning for brunch and swap sex stories, they don't want to hear Eric's because they know his wife and don't want to picture it. For a bunch of horndogs they have a lot of Freudian issues - they view women mostly as sex objects but if and when they're in a relationship women suddenly are people who must be respected by the other guys.
Within the film's opening five minutes these guys come off as sexist pigs and I was afraid all the men in this picture were going to be depicted as such. After all they're all New York City residents and are caught up in the high life and trendiness of the city. They call themselves "scammers" in that they'll make up any lie to get a woman in to bed as quickly as possible. And they do it so easily because they are so comfortable with their atmosphere and their lifestyles (as opposed to the guys in "Swingers" in Los Angeles).
After one or two Sunday brunch scenes the guys all swap stories of a special girl they met who they didn't "rail" or "smoke" yet because they like her. When each guy chides the other for not scoring they become genuinely offended because they don't want to think of the girl as just another slutty chick they met. The problem is the guys don't know they've all met the same woman, a cute young lady named Mia played by the adorable Amanda Peet. She radiates charm in everything she does, especially with that Julia Roberts-type smile with the pouty lips and extra teeth. Mia is a charmer - she's sweet, smart and sexy in a relaxed, passive way. The guys do most of the "work" with the relationship and conversation and she simply responds, she doesn't initiate.
Not surprisingly the three dudes' friendship is torn apart by the fact they all like the same woman and none of them refuses to stop seeing her. Mia likes them all so much she can't choose and agrees to date all three simultaneously. It's an interesting idea and the second and third acts show how each guy tries to one-up the others behind their backs and each tries to be the best in bed with her as possible.
The screenplay does a fine job in filling up the running time with a lot of comical moments each guy goes through with Mia, such as Jonathon snooping through her medicine cabinet and ending up doing a toilet dive not unlike that infamous scene in "Trainspotting." Zeke and Mia have a funny debate over which condoms to buy at a drug store - the ones for her pleasure or his. Brad gets the least screen time with Mia and they don't have that many funny scenes together. It seems the director has a hard time establishing any new ground for the character outside of his sex-obsessed personality.
This idea of sharing a woman isn't some twisted sexual amalgam - they're not swingers or orgy guys or members of any of those underground sexual realms. It's a familiar idea that, coincidentally, Amanda Peet has been a part of before. There was an episode of "Seinfeld" in which she guest-starred as a girl Jerry asked out and when he picked her up saw she was living with a guy who didn't seem to mind she was going out with another guy. She later dumped that dude for Jerry but Jerry couldn't keep up with her so he enlisted the help of George and the two kind of split the job of the boyfriend ("Each of us would only half to be a half-man" said George).
"Whipped" kind of toys with this notion of three guys splitting the job of the boyfriend but it's not the theme or the point of the film. It's a really vulgar, no-holds-barred character sketch of modern men. The black comedy is as cold as it can be without being absurd. Eventually something has to give way and it does as the film segues into the last act.
Everyone winds up getting hurt in most relationships, and the more intense they are the more it hurts. There's a lot of pain to be emphasized with as the story wraps up, but it's in that black comedy kind of way so it's hard to tell how seriously we're supposed to take it. It's something Neil LaBute could pull off but rookie writer/producer/director Peter M. Cohen only hits the nail about halfway in. He's more interested in making a point than making a good movie about the characters. It's kind of betraying in a way because even though the guys are pretty unlikable characters at the core they start to show real signs of growth and maturity that Mia has brought out of them. In the end all we're left with is the message that everyone's a slut whether they realize it or not.
After seeing "Whipped" I think there's more of those "Maxim" guys out there than I could have guessed, that's scary.
GRADE: B-
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