| AMY'S
ORGASM Rating:   Director: Julie Davis Producers: Julie Davis, Fred Kramer Writer: Julie Davis Director of Photography: Mark Mervis Cast: Julie Davis, Nick Chinlund, Caroline Aaron, Mitchell Whitfield, Jennifer Bransford, Jeff Cesario Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew. |
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Review by: Warren
Curry
8/18/02
Bad execution, and an incredibly tired concept straight from a literary agency's overflowing recycle bin of sub-par spec Sex and The City scripts, combine in the new romantic comedy Amy's Orgasm. How many more times can we see a perfectly fit young woman neurotically ask herself and others, "Am I fat?" in an attempt to provoke laughter, before not a single person makes even the slightest chuckle? To answer my own question, that time may be drawing near, as the deafening silence that accompanied every painfully off-the-mark joke at the screening I attended of this film was enough to move even the most hardened critic to consider blurting out a mercy laugh.
Meet Amy Mandell (Julie Davis, the film's director, writer, producer and editor), a 29-year-old author of a best-selling self-help book that encourages females to abstain from romantic relationships with men. Women, she argues, don't need males in their lives to give them purpose, and setting out to practice what she preaches, Amy has taken a vow of celibacy. Of course, not so ironically, Amy finds out that the key ingredients missing from her life are... you guessed it: good sex and a man. To help cope with the grief that stems from her hypocrisy, the Jewish Amy regularly attends confession and comes clean to a priest (Jeff Cesario), who is dealing with similar frustration.
Enter Howard Stern-like radio DJ Matthew Starr (Nick Chinlund). Matthew arranges for Amy to be a guest on his talk show, and the inevitable confrontation erupts on air, with Matthew, the stereotypical misogynist, getting the upper hand. When Amy storms out of the station, an apologetic Matthew is right on her heels and would like to know if the two of them could go out on a date. You see, beneath the chauvinist pig is really a sweet (albeit confused) guy, and he just can't get the adorable Amy out of his mind. Now we have the start of an awkward (in a harmless way) relationship and all the makings of a horrific film.
There was nothing I found plausible about this movie. I couldn't identify with any of the characters, nor did I buy Amy and Matthew's relationship for even a second (and if you do buy it, then Amy has no credibility whatsoever). Matthew, actually, never really stops being sexist, it's just that his behavior becomes a little less deplorable over time. Amy, the smart, sophisticated, successful woman, should know better, but she just can't help herself with Matthew. After all, we all realize that the vast majority of single heterosexual women are really just looking for Prince Charming to come along and validate their otherwise incomplete existence. C'mon, that's Human Nature 101.
As popularized by television shows like the aforementioned Sex and the City and Ally McBeal, regardless of how independently minded an adult woman may be, there is one thing that's sure to be their Achilles' Heel: a sexy man. Amy's Orgasm perpetuates that myth and does so in a way devoid of any charm, grace or even humor. This film contains some of the absolute worst one-liners I've ever heard, and scenes that are so ill conceived and poorly structured (especially when Amy first meets Matthew's brother) that you're left with no choice but to cringe. The only slightly admirable quality is the film's decent visual sense. I enjoyed the atmosphere that's so immediately captured in the first scene, and I was with the movie for about the opening 30 seconds. From there it plummets fast.
Davis's decision to star in her film comes
off as a touch narcissistic. She's written herself a character
that apparently every man is somehow drawn to, and it's obvious
she's banking on the audience to be enamored of how "cute"
her world of inner confusion is. Sorry, doesn't work. Amy's
Orgasm is simply another low form of condescending entertainment,
which shouldn't be nearly clever enough to capture anyone -- perhaps
not even the least discerning viewer -- in its clutches.
Let's all talk about it in the
message
boards.
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