Another strong disagreement with Mister Maltin.

The movie at issue is “Better than Sex.” It’s an Australian movie written and directed by Jonathan Teplitzky, and it stars the aesthetically pleasing but sort of dull Susie Porter and David Wenham.
It follows the arc of a one-night stand that turns into a long weekend.

There’s a lot of nudity, arguably enough to make the nakedness boring. Even so, it’s not particularly sexy or erotic. I’m going to blame the lack of sexy on the clear influence reality TV had on this film.

“Better than Sex” uses the reality show trope of the “Confessional,” and uses it to excess. The budding relationship is constantly interrupted by moments of our lovebirds talking directly into the camera about what they were feeling at the moment we just saw. Sometimes we even get commentary from people who must be their friends and relatives. I guess this was supposed to make the thin story more meta, but it feels like a rated-R “Real World” episode.

Not only is the running commentary responsible for arresting the momentum every time we start to care, but it adds nothing to the story. It’s just a constant stream of trite relationship truisms of the “Men leave the toilet seat up – women take too long in the bathroom” variety.

I liked the leads enough, I guess. They were engaging and believable as random hook up participants, and for a while you care where their relationship will go.

I think the director was shooting for “When Harry Met Sally” but ended up somewhere between in the neighborhood of “Taxicab Confessions.”

I can’t recommend it, but Leonard can. He calls it both “refreshing” and “engaging.” If you like chatty, unsexy movies about sex, or romantic comedy with almost no jokes, this is for you. For everyone else, stay away.

Next up – Edward Furlong in the Steve Buscemi-directed “Animal Factory.”