The Opposite of Sex
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DVD details
Actor: Christina Ricci, Johnny Galecki, Lisa Kudrow, Lyle Lovett, Martin Donovan (II)Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-11-17
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Opposite of Sex
DVD Review: Not bad but overrated
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Opposite Of Sex" is a very strange movie. It tries a little too hard to be hip and "edgy" - mainly by having a protagonist, Dedee (played well by Christina Ricci), who's not only not a nice person, but who also tells the audience as much in the many voice-overs she does throughout the course of the movie. The problem is, the voice-overs seem to be there to keep Ricci's presence in the viewer's mind, since she's actually in very little of the movie as a visible character. There is lots of screen time given to Dedee's half-brother Bill, very well underplayed by Martin Donovan; and way too much screen time given to Lucia, the sister of Bill's now deceased boyfriend, played by Lisa Kudrow in a grating, one-note performance that has been inexplicably praised to the skies -- Some people thought she was "robbed" of an Oscar nomination for this movie, which I find laughable. Her character here is in a bad mood almost all the time, making caustic (and unoriginal) comments about everyone, but Kudrow uses the same vocal and physical mannerisms as she does on "Friends" - the farthest away from Phoebe she gets is her mousy brown hair color. She never gets Lucia to seem like a real person though. To be fair, part of the blame must be laid at the feet of Don Roos, the writer/director: Lucia's motivations are never explained, and why she follows Bill around makes no sense except as part of a (possibly incestuous) obsession she had with her own brother -- if the script bothered to explore this aspect of her character it might have been more interesting, but as it is she might as well not be in the movie at all. The same could be said for Lyle Lovett's policeman Carl (and the heavy-handedness of the dialogue right before Carl and Lucia kiss for the first time is painful). Even the motivations of Dedee are vague - making a mess out of other people's lives only makes sense if Dedee is going to get something out of it herself, but what she's really after is never made clear, so although at the end of the movie she says she's changed, it seems lame and contrived - she's just smoked and drank her way through a pregnancy and snuck off leaving the baby with her half brother, so how exactly is she different? And some of Dedee's un-PC observations (like her view of homosexuality and AIDS) are supposed to be knee-slappers, but instead they're just ... well, lame and contrived again, like a lot of the script. Also problematic is that, between Dedee's voice-overs and Lucia's non-stop ranting about everything that's happening, the viewers are constantly being told what to think and feel about characters and situations, instead of just being allowed to experience the story as it unfolds and make up their own minds.
There are some bright spots though. I'm guessing that the writer/director is a (...)male himself, because the three principal gay male characters are the most authentic and best-written characters, and consequently the best-acted as well. In addition to Donovan's strong performance (some complain that he is too low-key, but to me this makes sense for a character who's been paralyzed by grief), Ivan Sergei is terrific as Matt, the sweet but confused boy toy who is not quite as clueless as everyone thinks; and Johnny Galecki is hilarious as Jason, Matt's conniving and possessive "other" boyfriend who's a drama queen - some reviewers complained that Galecki's performance is over the top and stereotypical, but I thought he was realistic and also very funny. It seems to me that Roos could have told a more effective story by concentrating on these three characters and fleshing them out more - giving so much importance to Dedee and especially to Lucia, serves mainly to muddy everything up, IMO. Another plus for the movie is that it looks great - the cinematographer did a remarkable job. One caveat about the DVD though - the disc features a full screen transfer of the film on one side and a "widescreen" transfer on the other; however the widescreen version, while it does give a bit more picture on the left and right sides, seems to have cut off some of the top and bottom of the frame as well. So what's the point?
Although it thinks it's more profound than it really is, "The Opposite Of Sex" is not a bad movie, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea, so I would recommend renting it before buying it.
Description of The Opposite of Sex
OPPOSITE OF SEX - DVD MovieChristina Ricci had a great year in 1998. The young actress continued to cast off her youthful image from the Addams Family movies and made a big splash on the independent movie scene, especially in this scathingly witty comedy in which Ricci has the central role. Here she plays Dedee, a buxom, sexually precocious teenager who's pregnant, cynical, and looking for a volunteer father for her unborn child. This takes her to the home of her gay half-brother (Martin Donovan) whose current lover (Ivan Sergei) becomes Dedee's latest target for seduction. That's just the start of the mischief that Dedee so masterfully orchestrates, and Lisa Kudrow (from TV's Friends) is also on hand to deliver some of the movie's most quotable dialogue while fending off the affection of a local policeman played by Lyle Lovett. If all this sounds rather sordid, rest assured that the movie's got a warm heart (well, sort of) beating beneath all of its sharp-edged sarcasm. Writer-director Don Roos (Single White Female) injects most of the movie's appeal and humor through Dedee's voice-over narration, which constantly reminds us that even the most familiar movie clichés can be cleverly overturned. As a result, The Opposite of Sex is the opposite of boring. --Jeff Shannon
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