Sleeping With Other People was the fifth movie I saw over 48 hours. The Finest Hours, Anomalisa, 45 Years, and Love & Mercy were the others. While The Finest Hours was entertaining and was an excellent movie to see on the big screen in 3D, the only movie of the five that I enjoyed was Love & Mercy. As much as I disliked most of Anomalisa and 45 Years, the worst of the five movies was Sleeping With Other People. I am a big of Jason Sudeikis (We’re the Millers, Hall Pass). I liked him a lot on Saturday Night Live and thought that he had a fantastic start to his movie career, and sometimes, he can make you laugh out loud with his humor. At least for now, I think he needs to stick to strictly doing “funny” comedies. Sleeping With Other People was a comedy that was not funny and played like a dramedy more than any other Sudeikis movie I am familiar with. Likewise, this has also been classified as a romance, which I find sad and a discredit to the genre. I hated the premise of this movie and felt that it was tough for me to relate to, either on a personal level or how I observed those close to me. Perhaps this is the lifestyle for many people, but I don’t see it in my life. I didn’t know if I was supposed to take this movie seriously or if this was just supposed to be a fun 90 minutes. In either case, it failed. I neither enjoyed myself nor even laughed one time.
As mentioned, Sudeikis will continue to have a great career. However, I am uncertain about the shift from raunchy comedies so early in his career. His follow-up to Sleeping With Other People was the real-life drama Race, which has received lukewarm reviews. The problem with Sleeping With Other People (at least regarding him) is that he tried to play a legitimate adult while still wanting to portray the amateurish characteristics that have made him great in movies like We’re the Millers, Hall Pass, and Horrible Bosses. Long story short, he was hard to take seriously, at least for me. Plus, while this feels a little harsh to say, I don’t see him in the same attractiveness filter as Alison Brie (The Lego Movie, The Five-Year Engagement), Amanda Peet (Identity, Changing Lanes), Katherine Waterson (Steve Jobs, Inherent Vice), or a host of the other beautiful actresses in this movie. I know looks aren’t everything, but in a film that revolves around hooking up, looks DO mean something. Couple that with the fact that Sudeikis’s Jake and Brie’s Lainey are supposed to be the same age but are seven years apart in real life, and you’ve got a variety of issues that prevent this from being a movie that I can even like, let alone endorse.
Director Leslye Headland (About Last Night, Bachelorette) had jokingly compared her movie to When Harry Met Sally. Let’s not go crazy, Leslye. I found no similarities other than that this movie wanted to be the 2016 version of this 1989 classic. Sure, the two romantic leads will eventually get together after determining a variety of factors, and the reasons that they come up with to keep them apart aren’t, in fact, enough to keep them so. It’s very formulaic, which isn’t always bad if you can, at least, find it engaging, funny, or memorable.
Nothing about Sleeping With Other People was engaging, funny, or memorable. The plot revolves around Jake and Lainey, who, sort of by chance, lost their virginity while in college and never really talked about it after that. Fast-forward 18 years, and they find themselves in each other’s lives again at a sex-addicts-anonymous meeting. The commitment-phobe Jake has no problem sleeping with just about anyone, but as soon as any complications arise, he’s out the door. Jake (Sudeikis) is a great-looking, successful guy with women flopping at his feet. Please. Lainey has her problems, entering into relationships with men who have already committed to somebody else. Her current obsession is with an engaged gynecologist, Matthew (Adam Scott – Black Mass, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). Her infatuation with him makes breaking things off and beginning anything with anyone else impossible.
At the sex-addicts-anonymous meeting, Jake and Lainey agree that they care for each other but have many individual issues and baggage that make them a horrible couple. So, instead, they decide to be best friends and listen to each other’s relationship problems. They’ll realize that they are attracted to each other through ups and downs and now have this incredible foundation from which they can build something. But, again, it is very formulaic, and it is just not funny. There are a few moments that MIGHT allow you to chuckle softly, but they are few and far between. In terms of better comedies of 2015, you’ve got Vacation, Trainwreck, and The Intern, each funnier and each with a plot that pummels the outlandish Sleeping With Other People.
I’m all for raunchy comedies, and I could enjoy a movie like this if it weren’t so lazy, formulaic, and disbelievable that it allowed me to laugh on occasion. Unfortunately, this was not that movie, and I hope Sudeikis reevaluates a couple of things and returns to comedies that don’t try to be something more than they should be.
Plot 6/10
Character Development 6/10
Character Chemistry 6/10
Acting 5.5/10
Screenplay 6/10
Directing 6/10
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 8.5/10
Hook and Reel 6/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
66%
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