40 Days and 40 Nights

(2002) dir. Michael Lehmann
viewed: 02/07/03

In referring to Rob Cohen’s The Fast and the Furious in a very recent diary entry, I noted the film’s potential reading as something of a very contemporary anachronism. Not to repeat myself too widely here in the film diary, but director Michael Lehmann’s 40 Days and 40 Nights is a film set among a very recently departed period in American culture, the dot-com “boom,” and as a result purely reeks of anachronistic cliches. This film is much less a product of its period, as I might suggest that The Fast and the Furious might be, but rather simply a weak comedy that attempts to situate itself in a “contemporary” world, but merely missed the boat.

I have maintained a soft spot for Lehmann’s film Heathers (1989), though judging by his other output, one might surmise if there is anything still worthwhile in that late 1980′s teen film, it may just be a coincidence that he directed it. I didn’t even realize when watching 40 Days and 40 Nights that he was the director. In fact, the main reasont that I wanted to see this film was that I had once seen a picture of Shannyn Sossamon, the film’s female lead, in a magazine and had thought that she was pretty cute.

If a diary demands brutal honesty, there you have it.

The movie itself has a heavy religious undertone that seems to critique the characters and the world of the film (their “meaningless” sexual obsessions) and at other times seems to endorse it. Inspired by his brother who is training to become a Catholic priest, an over-sexed web designer decides to forsake all forms of intimate pleasure for the duration of Lent. Visions of doom during his casual sexual encounters trigger the psychic crisis that leads him to his fast. At the height of his “test,” the protagonist, Matt (played by Josh Hartnett), literally figures himself in a Christ-like pose. There is even a strange “immaculate orgasm” sequence that could even seem to suggest some bizarre sort of abstinence-related non-physical sexual epiphany.

In this sense, the film seems to want its abstinence and have its sex, too. Purporting Matt’s experience as some sort of “spiritual” journey, the journey teaches him the evils of casual sex (more or less). And though the film seems to lampoon this notion at times, its narrative certainly seems to ultimately endorse the goodness of his abstinence. Oddly though, the film is essentially a sex farce, a comedy whose major humor is derived from its sexual content, and so this attitude seems somewhat ironic.

The film is set in San Francisco, and though it’s not set in a specific time period (other than the implied “present”), the internet design company that Matt works for truly seems to be a figment of a very recent past, as I mentioned before. The city is nicely used in the film. In catching some familiar locations, I probably warmed to the film somewhat through seeing my beloved town in a recognizable image.

As for Shannyn Sossamon, who lured me to this film, she was neither good nor bad (as a screen personality/actor) in my opinion, though still quite attractive to my way of thinking.