Sleeping with Other People (2015)

Elevator Pitch: Lainey and Jake deflower each other in a one night stand while they are students, but do not meet again until they are attending the same sex addicts meeting, he due to his inability to commit and she due to her tendency to having sex with people other than her current boyfriend.  They decide, even though they like each other immediately, that they will be friends rather than sexual partners, so they continue to sleep with other people (could be the name of a film) even though more and more they are seen as a couple. Only when Lainey moves to Texas, do things come to a head.

Content: Well, there we have it. There is no nudity. If we are to believe this film even serial sexists have sex fully clothed with only their rude bits invisibly touching. Visitors from another planet would be confused. However there is a lot of smutty talk, including detailed instructions on female masturbation, and sexual texts mostly passing between the two friends and their lovers. So after the initial scene when they get it on together they meet again 12 years later and go through many social events together, as well as lying about on the upholstery in the flats of one or the other. 

A View: One of the critics said “far better than most other romantic comedies of the last couple of years”, although this is a pretty low bar, because most  are toe-curlingly awful. If anything it is a one note presentation which can’t really be sustained even for an hour and forty minutes. On the plus side, for me, was the fact that the actors spoke very clearly. There seems to be more and more mumbling these days. So there we have it, not a bad way to pass an hour and half for nothing, but don’t watch it with your granny.

Additional Info: Leslye Headland is a former staff writer and playwrite maybe best known for the film of her play “The Bachelorette”.