Movie Review: Sleeping With Other People
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Think of it as When Jake Met Lainey.
That's because Sleeping With Other People often plays like a 21st-century update of the popular and influential romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally.
If Sleeping With Other People doesn't have quite the luster or impact of its illustrious predecessor, or the propulsive belly laughs, it's still a likable, worthwhile, funny successor.
In the prologue, in a one-night hookup as Columbia University students, Jason Sudeikis's Jake and Alison Brie's Lainey lose their virginity to each other.
Then they lose touch.
Now, over a decade later, both of them are saddled with spotty romantic records, Jake because of his unrepentant womanizing and fear of being hurt by anybody, Lainey because she has remained fixated on the gynecologist (Adam Scott) she was in love with in college, the only person she's willing to be hurt by.
For different reasons, then, neither seems much of a candidate for monogamy.
Then they accidentally reconnect in New York City, where they both live – at a sex addicts support group, of all places – and both immediately feel emotionally at ease with one another. Each feels "at home."
So they decide to ignore any sexual tension between them and remain friends without benefits despite their mutual attraction to each other.
Can they possibly make this work?
Given the genre, sure, you know the answer to that question. But that doesn't matter or undermine the enjoyment of watching this romantic exercise play out.
Writer-director Leslye Headland (Bachelorette) explores the same question that director Rob Reiner did in When Harry Met Sally in 1989 – to wit: Can a man and woman be platonic friends? – and gets away with her somewhat farfetched setup thanks to the charm of her winning leads and the wit of her dialogue.
When the film begins, the thought occurs that, appealing as they might be, Sudeikis and Brie might have ascended to their star thrones prematurely. Both emerged from television, Sudeikis making his strong comedy case as the go-to guy on Saturday Night Live, Brie thriving simultaneously in comedy and drama on Community and Mad Men.
But just a few reels in, they seem to be right where they belong, boasting sufficient if not extravagant chemistry and each skillfully staying true to the character as concocted,
With pivotal characters this generously drawn and sharply acted, with their respective flaws and vulnerabilities and mistakes and the reasons for them so clearly on display, even viewers who find the script too graphic or too glib will be apt to be forgiving.
So we'll commit to 3 stars out of 4 for the risibly raunchy romcom, Sleeping With Other People. Sudeikis and Brie and laughter makes three.
