Love, Sex And Eating The Bones

Love, Sex and Eating the Bones is a very entertaining little romantic comedy with some fairly edgy twists to go with the more typical elements of the genre.

Michael is a guy who works as a night security guard, but who has aspirations to be a professional photographer. But he s one of those guys who is stuck in a rut - it s clear he has talent, but he doesn t push himself harder, he doesn t have the confidence, in trying to get himself noticed.

He is also stuck in a rut when it comes to relationships. The movie doesn t explain what happened in his previous relationships, but whatever it was, we know what it s led to: a fascination with porn. You know of people with a favourite bar -- this guy has a favourite porn shop, and he and the owner know each other by name. And like a bartender, the porn-shop owner befriends one of his best customers while giving him his fix.

Michael also has a fascination with one particular porn starlet. The movie helps us visualize that obsession and his addiction in general by having his fantasy porn star materialize on the couch with him as he s watching the movie. This fantasy will often take his mind away from other things during certain points in the movie - as with any addiction, this one is a temptress in all senses of the word.

Jasmine is an advertising executive burned too many times by men. Her last boyfriend cheated on her, and she s pretty much given up. But then, as luck would have it, she meets Michael at the laundromat, and the two of them strike up a conversation. They seem to hit it off, especially after Jasmine checks out some of Michael s photography (include a pretty cheesy bit where when she opens up his book, a white light comes out, as if she had just seen something so amazing!). And the two of them take the plunge and exchange each other s phone numbers and set up a date. Of course, things don t go quite as planned.

As with all of these romantic comedies, there s always someone who objects to the relationship for whatever reason. In this case, it s Jasmine s cousin Peaches, who already encountered Michael at the porn shop (she got herself a job there in order to conduct some kind of amateur sociological experiment), and is quite appalled to find out that Jasmine, this beautiful, successful advertising executive, would go on a date with a guy who works as a nightwatch man and watches porn. Peaches had already attempted to fix her up with some handsome and eligible bachelors, and is even more offended when Jasmine shows herself not to be shallow and not care about his job.

But Jasmine doesn t know about the porn, and that s where the real conflict comes in.

Of course, Michael being sex-starved and porn-addicted, he just can t wait to bed this lovely lass. But Jasmine tells him that she s celibate, as she no doubt would be considering her unfortunate relationship history. They still date, and get to know each other. Eventually, they do decide to get intimate. But, alas, something goes wrong -- seems that after being only with his porn fantasies for so long, he can t perform with a real woman. The two try to work around it. Jasmine is patient, but soon she finds out there is a line which she won t cross.......

The film is pretty raunchy, I suppose, but I found it too charming to be lewd. I wouldn t call this lowbrow and crude, but rather adult. All of the characters are rooted in the real world and are generally quite entertaining and sympathetic. The movie pokes fun at certain males relationship to pornography, and manages to express a truth about pornography that doesn t feel like mere moralizing. Naturally, in a movie where the fantasy of pornography is ribbed, the real women in this movie are, indeed, real women and not cardboard cutouts. The relationship between Michael and Jasmine is interesting because, while the porn issue is a major stumbling block, they do actually talk about things and behave generally like real people in their age group and background. In other words, it s as much about the people as it is about the unusual subject matter.

The acting is quite good. The two leads (Hill Harper and Marlyne N. Afflack) have good chemistry and certainly fit as believable romantic comedy characters. And the relationship itself is far more sexier than your average Hollywood PG-13-rated romance. This includes a steamy phone sex encounter that must only be possible for a guy who can t perform because it fits with his pornographic mindset, but is nevertheless a good example of sexy romance until its....err, climax.

So if you re looking for a slightly more mature and entertaining romantic comedy, I d say this movie fits the bill.