Sleeping with Other People movie review (2015)

Publish date: 2024-06-16

Movie morals tell us that in the horror genre, the two leads of writer/director Leslye Headland's cheater love story "Sleeping with Other People" would not survive the first act. Likewise, in a Hollywood romantic comedy they'd be all alone at the end, designated as "the wrong one" in the shadow of cleaner, more monogamous leads. In a refreshing change to these unwritten rules, Headland's Sundance indie "Sleeping with Other People" is about two promiscuous New Yorkers who are not exempt from meaningful relationships, they just can't resist the urges that destroy them. As Headland defined the movie herself at the Utah festival during its world premiere, "Sleeping with Other People" is "'When Harry Met Sally' for assholes.

In the film, Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie play decent people albeit with darker pasts. Jake (Sudeikis) is a well-known womanizer and romantically challenged, who will go so far as to cheat to break up relationships instead of doing so nobly. Meanwhile, the woman he lost his virginity to in college, Lainey (Brie), has just destroyed another relationship by cheating on them with recurring fling Matthew (Adam Scott), an OB/GYN who cheats on his own wife with her. Of all places, Jake and Lainey reconnect years later outside of a sex addiction meeting, and with their shared problems they begin a friendship that becomes strictly platonic. They spend a lot of time together, but especially with Lainey going to medical school soon, and Jake's penchant to ditch anyone that he sleeps with, they decide to keep their connection hands-off, but to still confide in sexual details as they look for love in other people. This is not so easy, as all romantic comedies also tell us. As their friendship develops, the movie take on its own brand of romance, with openly sexual repartee and an explosive amount of bottled hormones between its two romantic leads. 

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