40 Days and 40 Nights

Review by Clint Morris

He’s faced the menacing Japanese in Pearl Harbor and also fought for man and country against the merciless Somali soldiers of Black Hawk Down.

Now Josh Hartnett faces his greatest adversary: the opposite sex, in Michael Lehmann’s 40 Days, 40 Nights.

Matt Sullivan (Hartnett) is your typical young 20-something persistently betrothed in thoughts of sex and women, but when his latest girlfriend, Nicole (Vinessa Shaw) rips his heart out and sticks it in his boxers, Matt Sullivan sinks into a deep dark depression where sex with complete strangers starts to lose momentum.

Upon hearing of a religious restriction to sacrifice something you love for 40 days, he quits sex, and anything to do with it – hoping in turn he will rediscover the real reason men and women fall in love, and consequentially make him a better man.

With the bets piling up courtesy his co-workers in the office, Matt meets a charming young woman (!), Erica (Sossamon) at the local laundry. He manages to restrain himself for one night – but can he do it 40 days, especially when he’s just so damn attracted to the girl?

The trailer for 40 days, 40 nights probably has you believing it’s a nice little romantic comedy. How do they do it? The film’s as far away from that as possible.

The few shades of romance 'cum and go’ faster than a speedy deliveryman, and frankly, Hartnett and Sossamon can’t pull it off even for those few minutes.

It’s only her second major role and already Sossamon is proving exasperating. She’s consistently infuriating in this, her character’s dress sense leaves a lot to be desired – and ultimately, she’s not the kind of woman any guy would wait 40 days to sleep with.

Listen up casting people! You want audiences to believe a guy would wait over a month to get his prime time with the female variety, at least make her desirable and keyed up with spark.

It’s ironic to think that this is a film from Michaael Lehmann – the man who swept us up in the romance of Christian Slater and Winona Ryder in Heathers, and then again had us believing Janeane Garafolo and Ben Chaplin were eternally made for each other in The Truth About Cats and Dogs.

40 days, 40 Nights starts out quite funny. There are some great chuckles to be had there early on. However, when the film starts to mould into another incarnation of American Pie or Van Wilder the audience loses interest.

Simply to stick with the idea of a guy romancing a woman without sex could have been cute – but did we really need the endless gratuitous shots of breasts and buns to go with?

Two words to those who think that’s what audiences want to see: Adult Theatre. Josh Hartnett is a good actor, he’ll recover from this – but will the genre?

2.5 out of 5

40 Days and 40 Nights
Australian release: April 25.
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Shannyn Sossamon, Vinessa Shaw, Paulo Costanzo, Griffin Dunne, Terry Chen, Glenn Fitzgerald.
Director: Michael Lehmann.
Website: Click here

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