Plenty of rom-coms have chased after the central question from When Harry Met Sally. Can a man and a woman be friends? According to movies, almost never. In fact, a few years ago there was an Armageddon/Deep Impact situation with we’re-just-pals romantic comedies where Mila Kunis and Justine Timberlake (Friends with Benefits) and Natalie Portman and Asthon Kutcher (No Strings Attached) all pretended to have casual sex without falling in love. The Reverse Sally, if you will.
So now that movies have proven that men and women can’t be friends, and they can’t be casual lovers, Leslye Headland has a film that explores the classic question with a clever twist. Can two people who reunite at a sex addiction meeting avoid having sex with each other or falling in love? It’s a pretty fantastic challenge at the heart of Sleeping with Other People. The movie stars Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie in the well-worn shoes of people trying to fix their lives while denying their feelings, but the interesting part about the trailer is that it feels legitimately like they might not end up together.
Sleeping with Other People appears to have the mainstream appeal of the formula and the indie appeal of the bittersweet relationship reality to go with it. I have no idea if the lead pair will end up together in bliss or apart with self-affirmation (or apart in agony (doubtful)), but most trailers telegraph a sense of romantic safety to the audience that isn’t present here. At the very least, it looks like their are complications far beyond the typical Issue That Could Have Been Resolved in Five Minutes If You’d Just Talked. Plus, it’s a Sundance/Tribeca festival film that manages a broad, adult appeal.
Kate called it an “instant classic of the genre,” crediting a lot of the film’s appeal to the chemistry between the two stars and marking it as a “rom-dramedy” in her review. That only reinforces my anticipation for the movie and my suspicion that it’s a novel blend of mainstream and indie rom-com elements. This may be a necessary move for a genre that has struggled since the late 1990s, has found a warm home in the indie world, and has suffered under the weight of a new formula in said world. If the genre is to be refreshed, maybe it’s through a blend of the two sensibilities with a healthy dose of good, ol’ fashioned chemistry.
Sleeping With Other People is in limited theaters August 21st, expanding September 11th.
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