sL Star Rating: ★★★
Annie (Cameron Diaz) and Jay (Jason Segel)
have been happily married for some time now. But living a happily married life
isn’t the same as having a happy and active sex life. When they find themselves
in a rut in that particular level of intimacy, a night of passion turns into a
night of possible permanent public humiliation. With Annie’s prospects of an
awesome job on the line, will Jay have what it takes to save both their
reputations and their marriage?
The Story
This film opens with flashbacks of the
evolution of Jay and Annie’s sex life via Annie’s narration as she blogs. The
premise of the film is the struggle of keeping the fire alive after children
enter the picture. This evolution sees Jay and Annie go from a burning bush to
a dwindling flame and eventually, ashes of the campfire. The trouble begins
when Annie and Jay try to revers the clock by lighting a match and throwing it
into the ashes when they record themselves making love. But instead of bursting
into gentle flames, they spark a bushfire as Jay forgets to delete the video.
In a panic to save their reputation – and Annie’s career prospects – the couple
set out to erase their video from estranged iPads given to friends, family and
the mailman. But with a mysteriously conniving “text-assassin” is thrown into
the mix, the stakes rise to a whole new level.
I personally thought that the movie opens
and closes very boldly in the sense that it was borderline pornographic – but of
course you’d expect that from a film titled “Sex Tape”. Yet, regardless of how
it starts and ends, I thought the in between was realistic in its portrayal of
the loss of passion after the your marital status goes from “husband and wife”
to “mum and dad”. As the film progresses, you know, just much as Annie and Jay
do, that a sex tape won’t fix the bigger issue; you feel for the couple both in
their endeavour to reignite their passion and in their pains as they go through
damage control.
As the two go about their demolition
hunt, and have their true feelings about the issue come out into the open in
the process, other elements come into the mix that have you laughing and
cringing along with the characters. I enjoyed how writers, Kate Angelo,
Nicholas Stoller and Segel himelf, portrayed a marriage that was strong but not
getting the much needed intimacy – both through verbal communication and sexual
passion – through the business that comes with life, rather than just focussing
on the fact that Jay and Annie haven’t ‘done it’ in a while. I also loved portrayals
of other couples and their marriages along with how children shake up their
previous lives. These dynamics are then used as set-ups for twists that occur
later on in the film. I also thought the interlocking of the porn-industry was
very clever. I particularly loved that they don’t make excuses for the industry,
but instead make a powerful statement about why it exist.
The Cast
Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel carry
their chemistry from Bad Teacher
straight into this film. There is no denying that they completely compliment
one another in both the comedic aspects as well as the more serious elements of
the film. There’s an ease to their exchange in dialogue and their physical
theatre – especially with the endeavours that they attempt for this film.
Rod Corddry and Ellie Kemper
heighten the comedic element of the film as they produce even more comic relief
beside the existing quips delivered by Diaz and Segel. The four of them support
each other so well that you can believe that they are the perfect
couple-friends that will go through everything and anything together – even if
it meant you couldn’t look at them in the eye ever again.
Overall
Although I thought the story was well
written, I thought there were a lot of risqué scenes in this film. I do
acknowledge that this film gives a fair warning with its title, nevertheless, I
really don’t think they needed to show us some of the snippets from the actual
sex tape that was created – not just because they were borderline vulgar, but
the angles were unrealistic if the iPad was propped from a single position (no innuendo
intended) and the video was unedited. This film is definitely and adults only
film. Although the film has a family unit, it is in no way G-rated – so do not
watch this with children under the age of eighteen present in the room.
Next on sL: Hercules
