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Title: Sleeping with Other People (2015)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Alison Brie | ... | Lainey | |
| Jason Sudeikis | ... | Jake | |
| Jordan Carlos | ... | R.A. | |
| Margarita Levieva | ... | Hannah | |
 |
Charles Cain | ... | Helmet Kid |
| Adam Brody | ... | Sam | |
| Michael Cyril Creighton | ... | Attentive Waiter | |
| Billy Eichner | ... | SLAA Speaker | |
| Jason Mantzoukas | ... | Xander | |
| Amanda Peet | ... | Paula | |
| Victoria Frings | ... | Nurse | |
| Adam Scott | ... | Matthew | |
| Natasha Lyonne | ... | Kara | |
| Andrea Savage | ... | Naomi | |
|
|
Sawyer Shipman | ... | Lyle |
Can two serial cheaters get a second chance at love? After a one-night stand in college, New Yorkers Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudeikis) meet by chance twelve years later and discover they each have the same problem: because of their monogamy-challenged ways, neither can maintain a relationship. Determined to stay friends despite their mutual attraction, they make a pact to keep it platonic, a deal that proves easier said than done. Written by lament
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Sometimes you can make a movie title into a funny sentence – if you word it just right. For example, I could tell you that I spent good money to check out Lily Tomlin's "Grandma" (her September 2015 movie), and I was very disappointed with what I saw. The previous spring, I decided to go to "Get Hard" (the Will Farrell – Kevin Hart comedy). A couple months before that, I watched "The Boy Next Door" for about an hour and a half and I'd do it again. But I'm fickle. Even after looking online and finding "The Perfect Guy", I still found myself looking forward to "Sleeping with Other People". Unfortunately, my significant other was not amused when I texted that that was what I was doing when I didn't come home on time one evening. Equally unfortunate is that this paragraph is about as funny and clever as the movie "Sleeping with Other People" (R, 1:41) is able to manage in nearly two hours of screen time.
Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudeikis) met in college and ended up losing their virginity to each other. About a dozen years later, they run into each other after attending a meeting for sex addicts. They each had people in their lives who suggested the group as a way of dealing with their respective obsession with sex and proclivity to cheat. After catching up and discussing their lives over dinner, they both hint that they're still attracted to each other, so they agree to just be friends – with a safe word for times when one says or does something that the other thinks could result in things getting sexual between them. This way, they can enjoy each other's company while still sleeping with other people.
This arrangement works pretty well for a while. Lainey and Jake treat each other as best friends, but carry on with their own romantic relationships, and even discuss details with each other. Lainey is trying to get past a long-term obsession with her college boyfriend – turned gynecologist (Adam Scott) who is about to get married – to someone other than her. Jake is pursuing his new boss (Amanda Peet), but his friend and co-worker (Jason Mantzoukas) and his wife (Andrea Savage) are convinced that Jake wants to sleep with Lainey. Lainey's friend, Kara (Natasha Lyonne), is concerned that she's spending too much time with (or obsessing over) unavailable men. Soon, even Lainey and Jake have to admit to each other that they're acting like a couple and they need to figure out what to do about that mutual realization.
You've likely seen this story before. It has elements of the very similar 2011 romantic comedies "No Strings Attached" and "Friends with Benefits", with a touch of 2013's "Thanks for Sharing" and "Don Jon" (also very similar), but this film's biggest influence seems to be 1989's "When Harry Met Sally " Unfortunately, unlike that rom-com classic, "Sleeping with Other People" lacks likable characters whose actions make sense. Instead, with this movie we get crude sexual discussions between two people who are each such a mess that we don't really care if they get together in the end or not.
"Sleeping with Other People" was written by one person (Leslye Headland, who also directs), but feels like it's written by about five different people – who never conferred with each other. The script shoots off in several different directions, seemingly randomly. Jason Sudeikis is usually pretty funny and Alison Brie is pretty pretty, but they don't make a very cute couple. These two actors do have some chemistry between them, but it seems to be theirs alone. Even as these characters bounce between their various emotional extremes, they somehow seem to be in sync with each other. That means there are at least two people who know what's going on in this movie. The romance in the story only shines through in brief moments and the humor, even less. I enjoyed catching the frequent movie references tossed around by Sudeikis' character, but I stopped caring about the plot when it became clear that I was basically watching the 2015 versions of Harry and Sally, but not enjoying them nearly as much. "C-"