Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Shannyn Sossamon, Paulo Costanzo, Monet Mazur, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director: Michael Lehmann
Matt Sullivan (Josh Hartnett) works for a web site design company. He lives with his friend and roommate Ryan (Paulo Costanzo) and together they enjoy life spending their free time picking up gorgeous girls and sleeping with them. Everything’s going well…almost, because Matt is starting to miss Nicole (Vinessa Shaw), the girl he broke up with months before. In fact he can’t get Nicole out of his mind so much that when he’s having sex with his conquest of the night he starts to see the room breaking up with imaginary cracks appearing in the ceiling, right over the bed. It’s getting so that he almost can’t complete his part in the liaisons.
So he takes a vow that he won’t have sex of any kind for 40 days and 40 nights, not even with himself, and guess what, as soon as he starts he meets the girl of his dreams.
To make matters worse his entire office at work finds out about his vow and starts a betting syndicate on when he will break his vow. They even start a gambling web site and with thousands of dollars at stake there’s plenty of opportunity for enticement, to be put in Matt’s way with beautiful girls willing to seduce him to make sure they win the money.
What might seem like a fairly corny storyline and the opportunity to fail miserably, the filmmakers of 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS somehow manage to pull together a genuinely funny comedy keeping the script sharp and the pace just right.. The actors play their parts equally well with some really hilarious situations with Josh Hartnett trying to prove a guy can fake it and the sexy Candy’s (Monet Mazur’s) encounter with a photocopier.
If you’ve got a sense of humour and like to have fun at the movies once in a while, don’t give this movie up for Lent.
