A Cute Romantic Comedy for Adults Only

I’m not the sort of person who approves of one-night-stands, at least of the sort that you always hear about. You know, where two people come home from a party or a club, use each other in sexually deviant ways, and then dump each other like yesterday’s paper never to see each other again. For one thing, it seems like such a cold, cold way to treat people...... why would someone want to just use another person like a piece of meat that will be disposed of once it passes its best-before date. And another thing -- what if the close proximity of these two people stirs emotions inside of one or the other person that weren’t counted on before the one-night-stand occurred.

The Australian film Better Than Sex is about just such a scenario. It’s about a man and a woman who meet up at a party, and decide to have a one night stand. They both figure that nothing will come out of it other than a satisfaction of their mutual urges, especially considering that the man plans to take off to London in three days. They’ll never see each other again, so why worry about any possible consequences?

The two spend the evening together, but what occurs is more than just a night of meaningless sex. It turns out that the two actually like each other -- so much so that the guy still hangs around the woman’s apartment for the next couple of days. However, this growing intimacy clashes with both the social expectations of what occurs with a one-night-stand, and the fact that the guy is taking off to the other side of the world. With a one-night-stand, you have sex with someone who is a practical stranger, you cast him or her off, and hope that nobody else knows about your shameful attempt to douse your inflamed hormones. At least, that is what seems to be the point of such things. Yet, in my opinion, it’s impossible to be fully dedicated to such a concept. For one thing, two people who get together can’t help but to get to know each other, even if only for passionate sex, and trivial conversation. And even that constitutes an intimacy that is far deeper than “just” sex, as if sex were a cold, passionless thing like getting a glass of water to quench your thirst. Anyone who says that they aren’t affected in any way by getting involved in a one-night-stand is clearly damaged in some way. Either that, or they’re just lying........

This movie, being the fluffy romantic comedy that it is, wants us to believe that their powerful physical connection isn’t just good sex, or a great intimate interlude, but may be the start of something greater, something that could lead to love, or at least a good relationship. One of the more contrived elements of the screenplay involves a female cab driver who constantly shows up, ostensibly to give the male character a ride to and from places, but who ends up being a fountain of advice and encouragement for him. He is unsure of his actions after the first night. Should he leave or not? The taxi driver actually refuses him a ride because she wants him to actually have some backbone and reveal a little more of himself... since it’s clear to her, at least, that there is something more than one night of nameless passion. Intimacy -- real intimacy -- is a big issue in this film. Neither one wants to get too close, because that’s not what one-night-stands are all about, but the fantasy soon gives way to reality, as the two start having feelings for each other, and can’t help but to desire some sort of connection, even as other forces seem to be against them.

As I said before, Better Than Sex is best described as a cute romantic comedy. This despite the fact that if the MPAA gave this film a rating, it would quite likely receive an NC-17. Our couple spends a lot of time out of their clothing, and are not coy about showing it to the camera -- in my eyes, Suzie Porter, the female lead, is a hot chick, although she’s not the standard movie beauty, but that’s another story. They also have a lot of sex during these three fateful days, in all sorts of positions, in all sorts of places, and the movie (while obviously not hardcore) is quite frank about all of this, while also being real and humorous about it, which makes it even more sexy.

Such is the case with a film made outside of North America --- the actors and the writers don’t see any big issue out of lots of sex in a movie, as the very nature of the production is meant to be cute and fluffy, not sordid and sleazy. If Hollywood made an exact copy of this movie, it would be a scandal! A sweet comedy with all sorts of raunchy sex and equally frank talk about sex? It would never get off the ground in Middle America, which would rather take their children to see a gory slasher flick (oh, wait, they already do!) than watch a movie where people have sex -- and don’t die because of it! Sure, there are those gross-out comedies with lots of sexual humor, but that’s not the same as a movie whose basic formula is straight out of those cute romances starring Jennifer Lopez or Sandra Bullock, yet is frank about sex, and the role it plays in people who aren’t really looking for love, but who want to get together in any case.

The cuteness factor increases due to the voiceovers from the characters during many of the scenes, meant to signify their internal thoughts, as well as the confessionals they, and friends of theirs, make to the camera about relationships. These confessionals make me feel like I’m watching an X-rated episode of Love Connection, while the voiceovers make for some amusing moments, especially during the sex scenes. We get to hear what they think during sex -- in one scene, the woman tries to relax herself, even as she is worried whether she will orgasm during oral sex, while in another, the man tries to distract himself from coming by rhyming off in his head lists of food ingredients. For a while on that first evening together, they have more sex in spite of themselves, as the voiceovers tell us that they are tired, but feel like they have to oblige because the other one is apparently unstoppable! We also get observations by both the couple and their friends about the differences between men and women -- most of it is about sex, naturally, although other issues like love and marriage pop up, which give me the impression that a lot of why people want to engage in one night stands isn’t so much because they are horny, but because they are too afraid, lazy, intimidated, etc., by the whole relationship thing. They don’t want to make the effort. But, as this movie shows, sometimes those uncontrollable emotions that we have inside make the effort for us.

Better Than Sex isn’t the most brilliant movie in the world, but it is a movie that I would consider to be my kind of escapist entertainment. It’s cute, fluffy, and really steamy, with lots of gentle humor. But I only wish that I had a girlfriend, one who was on my wavelength, because I think that this would be a perfect date movie, under the circumstances.........

(Oh, and by the way, for those of you who were wondering, no, I did not plagarize my last fictional story, which was also about a one-night-stand that gets complicated, from this movie. I may not be a genius, but I did come up with that all by myself........