Rated R - Running Time: 1:24 - Released 4/12/02
THE SWEETEST THING
Rated R - Running Time: 1:24 - Released 4/12/02
The Sweetest Thing, at its worst moments, is like a
female version of Freddy Got
Fingered. At its best, it's like a 1½-hour episode
of Friends. Yeah—that's at its best. Written
by South Park staff writer Nancy Pimental and directed
by Roger Kumble, whose only directing credits are the abysmal
Cruel Intentions and
its direct-to-video prequel cleverly titled Cruel Intentions
2, this film mixes smut and wacky girlfriend antics in equal
parts, often scoring the guilty chuckle in spite of itself, with
plenty of bra-and-panty shots to please the guys. Luckily it stars
Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate, who, while they do not embody
the archetypes of thespianism, interact easily and seem to be
having a really good time. Thomas Jane, who inhabits the film's
one substantial male part, seems mainly there for decoration.
Diaz plays Christina Walters, a female Casanova—a player
who uses men for fun and sex and never calls them back, with a
long line of emotionally wrecked ex-lovers behind her. In trying
to teach her roommate Jane (Selma Blair), who was recently dumped
by her boyfriend, how to take life and love less seriously, Christina
introduces her to an attractive and anonymous man with the highly
symbolic name Peter (Jane) at a noisy nightclub. While Jane and
Peter don't hit it off (Jane ends up tangling tongues with another
guy whom she describes as "so cute—so stupid"),
Christina can't get The Beautiful Peter out of her mind. So she
and her other roomate, Courtney (Applegate), decide to take a
road trip to Peter's brother's wedding several hours away. This
trip is a girl-girl yuk fest fraught with all sorts of uterine-fueled
adventures, but it ends disappointingly for Christina when the
wedding turns out to be Peter's. So while Peter and his intended
(Parker Posey) decide they don't want to get married after all,
Christina and Courtney drive dejectedly home and the film attempts
to switch gears from a sexy sorority party to a romance with some
actual meaning. It isn't a comfortable transition.
Any success this film has comes from the obvious enjoyment its players have together. Boasting such infantile situations as two (not one, but two) females suffering potential facial injuries caused by penises, and a -ahem- suspicious dress stain being tasted by a dry cleaner to determine its origin, its script is definitely not its strong point. But the aforementioned interaction saves the film on numerous counts, and it really does succeed simply on the abilities of Diaz, Applegate, and Blair to be funny. Since Diaz's breakthrough film There's Something About Mary, seminal fluid has become an unfortunate staple of raunchy comedies, and no disgusting or embarrasing problem is out of reach for subject matter. But if you have a cast who has fun while they're making the film, chances are the audience will have fun too. Such is the case here. ***