Susan Granger’s review of “BETTER THAN SEX” (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
There’s a decidedly feminist twist to this Australian bedroom romp in which Cynthia (Susie Porter) meets Josh (David Wenham) at a party. She’s a costume-designer and he’s a National Geographic wildlife photographer who is planning to fly back to London in three days. They don’t connect immediately but sharing a taxi home, she impulsively decides to invite him up to her apartment. A casual one-night stand soon turns into an intense orgy of sex, soul-searching and, eventually, love. The horizontal duality is broken only by an impromptu visit by Cyn’s competitive chum (Catherine McClements) who briefly complicates their relationship as she blatantly flirts with Josh. In a touch of magical realism, an omniscient cab driver (Kris McQuade), along with various friends, serve as a Greek chorus. Tall, disheveled-looking David Wenham, soon to be seen in “Lord of the Rings,” and blond, blue-eyed, freckled Susie Porter are confident and obviously comfortable sans clothes, unabashedly romping in the nude and discussing intimate bodily functions, like urination, ejaculation and oral sex, talking straight into the camera. These inner monologues often reveal the subtext about the characters’ attitudes towards sex and commitment that’s hidden beneath the banter of their dialogue. First-time feature-film writer/director Jonathan Teplitzky, who has previously done commercials and music videos, astutely observes how strangers connect, graduating from physical attraction to an intimacy that is more profound and long-lasting. But the teasing narrative is often disjointed and the space-confinement soon becomes tedious. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Better Than Sex” is a simplistic, sated 6, but few things are better than sex – and this film is not one of them.
