Who was it that started making this type of romantic comedy anyway? All of these films look the same to me. Maybe there really is some intrinsic value to them. Then again, no - these films just smell of deprivation.
I only ask one thing from the movies that I see in the theater - that I walk out with more than I came in with. If a film entertains you by giving, it's good. If it entertains by taking, or if it doesn't entertain at all, it's poor. "Sweetest Thing" doesn't entertain at all. It vomits.
This story features Christina (Cameron Diaz), a successful businesswoman from San Francisco who is not interested in a relationship. She wants "Mr. Right Now" instead of "Mr. Right." Men hit on her all the time, but because she can get any man she wants, she plays around.
One night at a club, she bumps into Peter (Thomas Jane), a businessman from a town a few hours away who is put off with her insensitivity and expresses his disappointment. He leaves her at the club, and for the first time Christina feels like she has met a man who can't stand her. Turned on by this, she and her friend Courtney (Christina Applegate) hop in a car and travel three-and-a-half hours to Peter's brother's wedding in search of true romance.
I don't mind that this movie has a ridiculous premise. In fact, the story could have succeeded as a drama because of all the time and effort that was spent developing the characters. This movie failed because of all the disgusting sight gags. I am reminded here of a Natalie Merchant song. "If lust and hate is the candy, if blood and lust taste so sweet, then hey, give 'em what they want." "The Sweetest Thing" fails because it tries to give viewers what it thinks they want to see.
Even if I can dissuade many from seeing the film on the basis of its "innovative" use of semen, urination, cursing, lesbian gags and oral sex sketch comedy, there are plenty of girls out there (like the six in line with me) chomping at the bit to see this film for entertainment value.
I just want to emphasize the fact that this is NOT true romantic comedy!
The people who walked out of the theater feeling that they were entertained are people who have learned to accept or even prefer this pathetic attempt at humor because of repeated exposure to it. If people have any sense, they would not see this movie at all.
I even believe that these romantic comedy buffs would be thankful, even joyful that they had not been exposed to such filth. Ask yourself. Would you go into a movie if you knew ahead of time that it would be full of oral sex jokes, lesbian gags and other stomach-turning crap?
I don't want to give you the impression that there is nudity in this film - that would have exposed its shallowness. "The Sweetest Thing" is akin to Frankenstein in its (familiar) technique of trying to provide the best of all worlds by using what has worked in other films in the past.
I should mention the Farrely Brothers' "There's Something about Mary," which contains scenes that are equally disgusting. But at least the Farrely Brothers know how to entertain in other ways. "The Sweetest Thing" most certainly does not have an equivalent of Matt Dillon performing CPR on a dog to save face with a girl.
Having said all that, the film is well-acted. I knew Jason Bateman was in the film before I went in, and I still didn't recognize him as Peter's brother Roger. Selma Blair plays Jane, the unfortunate girl who gets caught in all kinds of humiliating and repulsive situations.
Even Applegate and Diaz are convincing as two old friends with a penchant for going on adventures and getting into trouble. It's too bad they are, or viewers might never take the sick path they lead us down.
We want to feel for Christina as she wrestles with her loneliness, but the tone of this movie is so fractured that we cannot do this until the very end. The old "happily ever after" ending returns, of course.
I feel for people who long for the vibrant romantic comedy so badly that they actually go to see "The Sweetest Thing." I am on your side - I love romance too. But this film is not the answer.
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