Whether or not self-loathing can be said to be a specifically Jewish quality (there is surely an argument in these narcissistic times to call it a virtue), it is one that director Olivia Wilde has turned to Seth Rogen to supply for this tense and often excruciating comedy.
Rogen plays failed indie musician Joe who lives a sedate, unfulfilled life as college music teacher and husband in a sparkless marriage to Angela (Wilde). He is full of wisecracks that she has tired of finding funny. If ever there was a marriage between Jew and non-Jew in which the opposites that once attracted had become irreconcilable differences, this marriage is it. Not that his Jewishness and her Waspishness are ever mentioned.
After cycling home in the opening sequence, first pedalling and then pushing the machine up an impossibly steep San Francisco hill to his apartment block, Joe discovers that Angela has invited the intriguing new neighbours to dinner.
Piña and Hawk – Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, who live in the flat above, turn up just as Joe bitterly complains he knew nothing about the invite and is threatening to use the opportunity to bring up the noise the neighbours make while having sex. The evening is tense from the moment Hawk asks if they should take off their shoes. There is a desperation about both Angela’s attempt to make the evening go well and Joe’s willingness to sabotage it. Yet none of this seems to faze the neighbours, who it appears see their hosts as in need of the their calm, unflappable company.
In the roles of the eerily amused Hawk and Piña, Norton and Cruz superbly convey a kind of evangelical wisdom that they appear to be wanting to share. Turns out they want an orgy.
After that initial sequence of Joe-struggling home, the film takes place almost entirely in Joe and Angela’s apartment, which speaks to the fact that the film was originally a play by the Spanish director and writer Cesc Gay.
Screenwriters Will McCormack and Rashida Jones have Americanised the work in the best possible sense. Even in liberal San Francisco Joe and Angela represent much of conservative America, albeit with a healthy dose of curiosity.
The copious amount of tension generated in the film is derived from an open relationship encountering the emotions and instincts of a tightly closed one.
What makes it so funny is Rogen’s uptight Joe, who conveys what might be described as outspoken sexual inhibition.
When Hawk and Piña describe how some of their more unorthodox sex acts are part of a journey to take them to a new destination, Joe chimes in with “yeah, the hospital”.
Rogen leans into the klutz side of his character a bit too much for my liking, but a gentle wisdom about relationships emerges that adds real depth to this very grown-up comedy.
Certificate 15
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