A cute premise nearly done in by a weak dialogue and some weak characters, 40 Days and 40 Nights is nearly a good movie, but not quite. Thanks to the fine performance of star Josh Hartnett and some nice comedic bits, the movie plugs along on genial inertia for 100 minutes, dragging only occasionally, but leaving you not completely satisfied when it concludes.
Hartnett plays Matt Sullivan, a webpage designer for a dot-com company in an alternate universe version of San Francisco (Clearly another reality, since super-model types are the only females employed at computer companies, and still more supermodel types spend Friday nights doing their laundry). After a messy breakup sends him into the arms and beds of most of the female population of San Fran, Matt decides he is fed up with feeling like an empty void. To fight his libido, he swears of all sexual activities for lent. It's a good thing Matt's not Jewish; otherwise he would have had to give up sex for Yom Kippur; a scenario that would have created a much shorter (and significantly more dour) film.
Quickly, Matt's roommate (Paulo Costanzo) and his fellow employees catch wind of his scheme, and soon bets are made, and saboteurs begin to try to taint his quest. Yet another monkey wrench gets thrown into the celibacy machine when Matt meets Erica (Shannyn Sossamon), a dreamy, quirky cutie who just might be `the one,' not to be confused with the super-powered One played by Jet Li last year in the film of the same name.
Writer Rob Perez gets a lot of mileage using the ridiculously attractive cast as spoiling seductresses, and as the days tick away toward forty some genuine suspense is created from the will-he-won't-he tension. Hartnett makes a likeable protagonist, especially considering he's a guy who's unhappy because he gets way too many women (Just like in the real world ). As the gags get more sexual, Hartnett plays his role in appropriately hammy fashion; but the budding relationship with Erica slowly distracts and hurts the main plot; mostly because while the script calls for Erica to be sassy in the meet cute, her character quickly becomes a complaining downer; soon we're questioning why Matt's so hung up on such a frequently harsh woman. And the pseudo-sex scene involving flowers is far too sappy to belong in a movie that also sports a CGI dream sequence featuring a sea of female breasts.
40 Days only recovers from that cumbersome scene by the very end of Matt's journey, but by then most of the film's goofy energy is gone. And a climax that involves a reconciliation between characters we don't care too much about doesn't make for gripping entertainment. You leave liking the movie more than you enjoyed it; Matt deserves a movie (and a love interest) worthy of his and our imagination.
Hartnett plays Matt Sullivan, a webpage designer for a dot-com company in an alternate universe version of San Francisco (Clearly another reality, since super-model types are the only females employed at computer companies, and still more supermodel types spend Friday nights doing their laundry). After a messy breakup sends him into the arms and beds of most of the female population of San Fran, Matt decides he is fed up with feeling like an empty void. To fight his libido, he swears of all sexual activities for lent. It's a good thing Matt's not Jewish; otherwise he would have had to give up sex for Yom Kippur; a scenario that would have created a much shorter (and significantly more dour) film.
Quickly, Matt's roommate (Paulo Costanzo) and his fellow employees catch wind of his scheme, and soon bets are made, and saboteurs begin to try to taint his quest. Yet another monkey wrench gets thrown into the celibacy machine when Matt meets Erica (Shannyn Sossamon), a dreamy, quirky cutie who just might be `the one,' not to be confused with the super-powered One played by Jet Li last year in the film of the same name.
Writer Rob Perez gets a lot of mileage using the ridiculously attractive cast as spoiling seductresses, and as the days tick away toward forty some genuine suspense is created from the will-he-won't-he tension. Hartnett makes a likeable protagonist, especially considering he's a guy who's unhappy because he gets way too many women (Just like in the real world ). As the gags get more sexual, Hartnett plays his role in appropriately hammy fashion; but the budding relationship with Erica slowly distracts and hurts the main plot; mostly because while the script calls for Erica to be sassy in the meet cute, her character quickly becomes a complaining downer; soon we're questioning why Matt's so hung up on such a frequently harsh woman. And the pseudo-sex scene involving flowers is far too sappy to belong in a movie that also sports a CGI dream sequence featuring a sea of female breasts.
40 Days only recovers from that cumbersome scene by the very end of Matt's journey, but by then most of the film's goofy energy is gone. And a climax that involves a reconciliation between characters we don't care too much about doesn't make for gripping entertainment. You leave liking the movie more than you enjoyed it; Matt deserves a movie (and a love interest) worthy of his and our imagination.