Review of 40 Days And 40 Nights

Introduction

Website designer Matt Sullivan (Josh Hartnett) has just broken up with his girlfriend Nicole (Vinessa Shaw) and finds himself sleeping around with most of the women in the Bay Area. However he comes to the conclusion that it`s all meaningless and his conscience is actually beginning to bother him. It`s while he`s talking to his brother, a priest in the making, that he comes across the idea of lent and then decides to abstain from sex for 40 days and 40 nights. No self-gratification, kissing or foreplay either.

People start putting wagers on how long this celibacy will actually last and Matt is facing challenges left right and centre. One of these challenges is Erica (Shannyn Sossamon) with whom he falls in love. She feels the same and wants to consummate it with him, but he can`t because of lent and he goes through hoops to try and keep the relationship together.

Video

The film is presented with a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer and it`s what you expect from a recent release. It`s very clean with well reproduced colours, detail and contrast. The San Francisco backdrop adds a certain colour to the proceedings and it looks vibrant. There were little signs of dirt or compression. It`s a very good transfer.

Audio

The soundtrack is a plain no frills Dolby Digital 5.1 track in English or Hungarian. While the dialogue comes out crystal clear, it`s a shame the ambience of the busy city doesn`t come through the other speakers. The music is loud and well suited, but the sound mix could have been better. What`s here remains clear and punchy though.

Features

Clean, static and easy to navigate menus with only a couple of extras.

• Feature Commentary (English subtitled) - Rob Perez (screenwriter), Michael Lehmann (director) and Michael London (producer). All three of the crew here ramble on about the film and it`s okay to listen to but I lost interest after about 30 minutes. They aren`t the most interesting of people to listen to though they did talk about the production of the film and the cast. I have no idea what more they talked about after that 30 minutes.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:06) - An okay trailer with Hartnett describing to camera what he`s going to go through to the tune of Queen/Bowie`s "Under Pressure".

Feature and trailer subtitles in: English, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Arabic, Romanian and Turkish.

Conclusion

I hadn`t heard particularly good reviews on the film`s original theatrical release, but it also never appealed to me. Any film that needs to proclaim, "From the producers of Bridget Jones`s Diary", is asking for trouble. So what? We`re led to believe that it`s not the writing or direction that make a film, it`s the producers! It leads to a slamming when said film doesn`t come anywhere close to what it proclaims.

We don`t get much of an impression of the relationship that Matt (Hartnett) has with Nicole (Shaw) except through the opening title sequence when we see them together filmed with a home video camera. When we later see Nicole in the film, she comes across as someone quite nasty and conniving and it makes you wonder who goes out with someone like this. So with her acting the way she does, we`re supposed to sympathise with our central character but I found it difficult to do so.

Even his love interest in the shape of Shannyn Sossamon doesn`t really have a big enough part to play in the film.

The story makes a HUGE deal of celibacy and to go without sex for a period of just 40 days is akin to a drug addict going through cold turkey. That`s the way the story paints it, and this is what Matt looks like as he goes through lent without intimacy of any kind. I know it`s supposed to be lighthearted fun but I thought it was patronising. It had the potential to be far better than it is here, perhaps even a little more insightful and with this would come the natural humour one can associate with not getting any sex.

On the plus side, the film does have a few moments of hilarity, but Hartnett is too much of a straight player to be effective. Once you`ve seen/heard the jokes the first time, there`s no interest in them the second time around. The film just isn`t as funny or charming as it says it is on the box. It`s simply bland.

40 Days and 40 Nights doesn`t leave a good impression and remains barely average at best. If you`re a Hartnett fan and have to see this, rent it. It`s not funny, it`s not clever, and it`s shallower than shallow. Avoid.