The idyllic life of a successful businesswoman, wife, and mother of two is about to be uprooted as she nears middle age. She suddenly is stricken with sex addiction as a result of a horrible rape she endured but doesn't recall as a ten-year-old girl approximately 25 years ago.. We know this to be true of the beautiful Zoe by the end of the movie because we are told it is true. It is evidenced by repeated reference to a missing memory, an unexplained scar, and finally a dream near the conclusion where Zoe finally remembers. In the final moments of the movie, Zoe relates this information to her group of sex addicts, their psychiatrist, and finally her husband as he enters the room. The writers, director, producers, and the original novel dictate it is true, so we must accept it to be so. It is the name of the movie after all! She is addicted to sex...and it just happened...out of nowhere...just as she started a torrid sexual affair with a talented local artist. We are told she is addicted to sex... not having an affair. As she and her new lover view some of his work and have public sex, it is because of an addiction. As she poses nude for paintings for him and they then have sex, it is because of an addiction to sex and not a sorted affair. As she looks upon various other nude paintings of various young women with great jealousy, she is somehow not having an affair with this fellow but is just addicted to sex. As she discovers him sleeping with his neighbor and reacts with more jealousy we are to believe she was not having an affair but was merely addicted to sex. As her artist lover asks her to leave her husband and she tells her psychiatrist she is tempted to do so, somehow her counselor interprets this to be a sex addiction and not her having a family crushing extramarital affair.
She is a beautiful woman. She could walk into any bar, gym, grocery, or bus station and say to the hottest guy "if you have an hour, I will have you." and that guy will likely have uncomplicated anonymous sex with her. That is what an addict would do. She does nothing even close to that and we are told she is addicted to sex while she pursues and is pursued by her lover in a typical cheaters fashion.
But wait, there is another fellow she starts sleeping with. That will make two other men besides her husband. When one lover gets too clingy, she starts another affair. This hardly seems like an addiction but we have been told it is so. If you are a woman who is addicted to sex, I hope you are as lucky as Zoe to come across the real-life male model Tyson Beckford playing Corey. Her first sex with Corey as I recall was a quickie in a public bathroom at a club. This actually fits the mold for what I would call a hookup fitting a sex addict. Yet on their next tryst, Zoe gets all dressed up and wears uncharacteristic red lipstick. They party late into the night rolling around on the floor drinking booze and snorting cocaine. Sex addiction apparently involves an hours-long drug induced hot date while your husband and family wait at home wondering where you are. Just to be clear, she was on a date. She was not just hooking up with someone for sex. Just as with her first lover, she is hanging out with him having a good time. She is on a date. She is cheating on her husband. As she prepares to enter their home where her husband is waiting, she pauses to wipe away the red lipstick. She's just a little drunk and stoned with some disheveled clothing, but the trusting husband won't suspect anything if she's not wearing the red lipstick.
To be clear, Zoe is merely a cheating wife. About 3 minutes of this movie are devoted to anything resembling sex addiction. Most people like sex. Cheaters certainly like sex. This movie is an embarrassment to the subject of sex addiction and has little to do with it. However the part when Jason accepts the diagnosis and takes her back to a round of applause from the sex addicts group members, just as the credits start to roll, helps to at least draw attention to the real thing.
I really think Sharon Leal did a good job with the character Zoe considering the implausible plot. Boris Kodjoe playing the part of husband Jason gets my coveted oblivious husband award for actually seeming to believe the lies of his cheating Zoe. That took some skill. Tyson Beckford...hmm...is a great male model!
She is a beautiful woman. She could walk into any bar, gym, grocery, or bus station and say to the hottest guy "if you have an hour, I will have you." and that guy will likely have uncomplicated anonymous sex with her. That is what an addict would do. She does nothing even close to that and we are told she is addicted to sex while she pursues and is pursued by her lover in a typical cheaters fashion.
But wait, there is another fellow she starts sleeping with. That will make two other men besides her husband. When one lover gets too clingy, she starts another affair. This hardly seems like an addiction but we have been told it is so. If you are a woman who is addicted to sex, I hope you are as lucky as Zoe to come across the real-life male model Tyson Beckford playing Corey. Her first sex with Corey as I recall was a quickie in a public bathroom at a club. This actually fits the mold for what I would call a hookup fitting a sex addict. Yet on their next tryst, Zoe gets all dressed up and wears uncharacteristic red lipstick. They party late into the night rolling around on the floor drinking booze and snorting cocaine. Sex addiction apparently involves an hours-long drug induced hot date while your husband and family wait at home wondering where you are. Just to be clear, she was on a date. She was not just hooking up with someone for sex. Just as with her first lover, she is hanging out with him having a good time. She is on a date. She is cheating on her husband. As she prepares to enter their home where her husband is waiting, she pauses to wipe away the red lipstick. She's just a little drunk and stoned with some disheveled clothing, but the trusting husband won't suspect anything if she's not wearing the red lipstick.
To be clear, Zoe is merely a cheating wife. About 3 minutes of this movie are devoted to anything resembling sex addiction. Most people like sex. Cheaters certainly like sex. This movie is an embarrassment to the subject of sex addiction and has little to do with it. However the part when Jason accepts the diagnosis and takes her back to a round of applause from the sex addicts group members, just as the credits start to roll, helps to at least draw attention to the real thing.
I really think Sharon Leal did a good job with the character Zoe considering the implausible plot. Boris Kodjoe playing the part of husband Jason gets my coveted oblivious husband award for actually seeming to believe the lies of his cheating Zoe. That took some skill. Tyson Beckford...hmm...is a great male model!