"Better Than Sex"? Almost!

Josh (David Wenham) and Cin (Susie Porter), two late 20-something Australians, meet at a party and share a cab home. Cin and Josh wrestle with the idea of asking each other in for a night cap. Cin rationalizes that Josh will be leaving in three days, to return to London, where he currently lives, so there will be no possibility of an emotional entanglement. They make it up to Cin’s apartment and begin a torrid, passionate one-night stand. The next morning, Josh dutifully leaves, but then decides to call her and the one night stand continues.

“Better Than Sex”, the new Australian import, is a fun, quick look at three days in a one night stand. Jonathan Teplitzky, the writer and director, doesn’t seem to hold anything back as the actors talk about orgasms, sex, one- night stands, etc. Their discussions seem to be very frank and truthful. Their sex is presented in an erotic and interesting way, leaving much to the imagination.

Presented in a semi-documentary approach, the action between the two characters is broken up by frequent head shots of various twenty-somethings talking about their sexual preferences and experiences.

Coming in five minutes after the film started, the three people who sat behind me in the theater quickly declared, in a normal voice, that the film was great and continued to do this every time the actors had sex or someone talked frankly about sex. They seemed to be turned on by the more explicit aspects of the film. Indeed, these aspects are the most noteworthy things about the film.

The film’s depiction of the entanglement between the two is very good. Both actors are very cute and seem perfectly matched. To the film’s credit, neither is a matinee idol. Both Josh and Cin are 20 something, relatively comfortable with their looks and status in society, blond and well-proportioned. Josh, a wildlife photographer, based in London, has a natural ease with his body and with sex, both noted by Cin in one of her on-camera interview segments. Marring the image just slightly is his larger nose. Cin is a pert, young, intelligent woman, also comfortable with wanting sex and expressing what she wants. Her body is covered with freckles, a lot of freckles. Each character is all the more attractive for their individual differences. The large nose and the freckles makes them seem even more real and interesting.

Their relationship starts off as a one-night stand and convincingly builds into something larger and more interesting. Their attraction seems natural as they realize they have a lot in common and this helps the conclusion maintain a level of reality which is also very sweet and satisfying.

The sex scenes are also presented in a way that make them seem natural, funny and interesting. Some of the scenes are born out of pure lust, others out of wanting to make the pleasure last. Each has an intensity and feeling that seem natural to the circumstances. Also, they are presented in a way that features each of the participants in different ways. Certain acts are more pleasurable for one member of the team focusing on that person.

The ‘talking head’ segments of both Josh and Cin and the various other ‘characters’ ranged from extremely showy to very natural. Some of these segments are just brief shots of someone uttering a word that is meant to titillate. Others are extended segments in which Josh and Cin try to examine what a particular feeling means or where the relationship is headed.

Less successful are short visits by one of Cin’s girlfriends and a recurring appearance by a female cab driver. Both elements stretch the level of credibility and remove us from the insular world of the two principals. These criticisms combined with a few shots in which the boom mike is clearly visible near the top of the frame mar this interesting Australian film.

Overall, I became very involved in Josh and Cin’s relationship. David Wenham and Susie Porter seem so completely at ease with one another and so attracted to one another that you can’t help but become interested in their relationship.