Movie Review: Sleeping with Other People

Here it is, my last review for the Phoenix Film Festival. It was a fun ride, folks, as always. It’s always a blast to spend a few days basically watching really good films non-stop. I highly advocate everyone that likes movies at all to come out and join me next year. My friend Haley tagged along this year on Saturday and Sunday, and I think she had a really good time checking out the films with me.

Sleeping with Other People was the closing movie on Sunday night at the festival. There’s always a movie to close out the weekend, since that’s when the awards are given out and a lot of the filmmakers start heading back to their respective homes. While the festival technically goes on through Thursday, the rest of the week is basically a re-showing of the award winners and other good films from the weekend.

So, Sleeping with Other People. This movie stars some pretty big names like Jason Sudeikis, Alison Brie, Natasha Lyonne, Amanda Peet, and Adam Scott. And first of all, I have to admit that I spent the better part of the movie building up a pretty big movie star crush on Jason Sudeikis. His character comes off as a pretty likable guy (even in a movie called Sleeping with Other People), and he plays him pretty darn well. Makes me wonder what the guy is like in real life… is he actually this cool for real?

Let’s talk about the plot. Sleeping with Other People is kind of a more modern retelling of When Harry Met Sally. A guy and a girl meet in college (admittedly under some somewhat strange circumstances), have sex – well, actually lose their virginity to each other, and then don’t see each other for years. When they run into each other on the street one day, they end up becoming best friends. And then trying to maintain that friendship.  You can kind of guess what happens from there.

Although you know how Sleeping with Other People will likely end, it’s still quite a fun ride. And pretty freaking hilarious along the way. I ended up reading some comments about the film on other review sites, and one word I kept seeing about it was “charm”. Yep, that’s a good thing to say about this movie. It definitely has its charm. Predictable, yes, but also just a cute, fun ride. It’s nothing too deep, and honestly When Harry Met Sally did do the “guys and girls can’t be friends” bit much better, but what other movie are you going to see where a guy shows a girl (using his finger and a jar, no nudity needed) how to pleasure herself, and actually has some good tips?

If you’re a fan of romantic comedies, Sleeping with Other People I’d recommend.  You won’t have to think too deep about relationships, but you will get quite a few laughs in.