Dane R. Youssef 2008-03-05

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

by dane youssef

Kublan's "Giving it Up" is a movie which is scarce in the indie field. A romantic comedy, rumored to be the worst, sloppiest, unentertaining and most formulaic of the entire genre.

But very surprisingly, "Giving it Up" is a smarter, more-thinking person's romantic comedy. A movie that seems to have filtered out the obnoxious slapstick, trite plot points, dumb characters, monotone dialouge and Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan's routines.

Oh, there are quite a few cliches' in this movie, all right. The playboy who's tired of the game and wants to settle down and develop as a person, the bookish love interest who has no patience for his antics, the sexist supporting characters, the geeky best friend, the unobtainable finally obtained... only to realize that...

And although it sounds like the storyline from "What Women Want" (which also featured Feuerstein), no two movies could possibly be more polar opposite.

But "Giving it Up" is more than that. It doesn't rely entirely on that as so many other rom-coms do.

"GIU" is a well-played, thoughtfully-written, smartly concieved look at men, women and their views on sex and drelationships.

In "Giving it Up," a New York advertsing executive who specializes in selling sex to sell products is living the "almost ideal existance." He has devoted his life to attracting the opposite sex.

And it seems to be working. He has a new stranger in his bed every night. He's making fat cheddar. His hard-nosed, sexist boss (Dabney Coleman "9 to 5," "Tootsie," "Recess: School's Out" and "You've Got Mail") loves him. His apartment is lavish and full of cosmetics to polish his vessel and keep it clean. And his superhuman libido fuels his creative fires.

Enter his new boss, Elizabeth, who has heard of him and his reputation. She's smart and genuinely attractive. And quite down to earth. Ralph (Mark Feuerstein "Woman on Top" and "What Women Want"), the playboy in question is instantly smitten with her. But she's heard the word on the street and smiles, giving him the brush off.

Ralph is obsessed. He wants her. He can have every woman except the one he truly wants. Ain't it always the way? Ralph's less-lucky-in-love buddy, Peter (Ben Weber-- "Twister" and TV's "Sex in the City") asks Ralph why? Why does he want to give up the life? Apparently, Ralphie boy feels empty. He decides to "give it all up."

He's the Falling Casanova. He tries to go celibate. He meets up with Elizabeth and informs her of his newfound desire to live a life with something besides sex and even tries to win her over with his outside sex-interests. Like his joy for Billy Wilder's Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn classic "Love in the Afternoon."

Kublan's script is smart in a "Sex in the City"-type of way. Full of realsitic conversations between men and women about dating, relationships, sex and their own views and look at it all.

The cast is paticularly strong for an indepenedent film. Feuerstein is a real charmer, Weber and James Lesure (From "For Your Love") are convincing and likeable as his best friends. Ari Larter as the foul and lecherous super-supermodel Amber is also good for a few laughs. Amy Redford is really 100% believable as a smart, intellegent, confident (and beautiful) businesswoman who hates her self a bit for falling for this falling Casanova.

See it alone for the near Oscar-worthy performance of the magnificent Dabney Coleman, more hard-nosed, sexist and snarling than ever.

Whatever it's called, wherever you live: "Giving It Up," "No Sex 4U." A rose by literally any other name. Or by it's original title: "Casanova Falling."

It's worth falling for.



danessf@yahoo.com

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=58175682

http://movies.yahoo.com/mvc/durvl?iid=7-3771615&.crumb=tGxhXi4L%2Fi8&s=mt_a

Collin Lyle 2004-08-20

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

I was looking for a fun rompy romantic comedy. What I got was flaccid mediocrity. It was poorly acted, had unappealing characters, a choppy plot, really, really bad cinimatography and awful sound quality. I was kind of bored and dissappointed considering the great cast and the potential for rollicking "Sex and the City" type fun. What happens is this ad exec sleeps with a different woman every night. At least he feels bad that he can't remember their names. He falls for a new woman in his office, but pretends not to be attracted to her because she's "bookish," which she isn't at all. He sleeps with her anyway. He also has a thing for this beautiful model who he can only admire if her imperfections are airbrushed out. Suddenly, he discovers he's lonely. The bookish woman suggests he see a shrink. The shrink is a creep, but our lonely guy continues to see him. And watching him sit around with his friends talking about their sex lives is as cringing as fingernails on a chalkboard. The Sex Addicts group he joins is mind-numbingly awful. He realizes he's in love with bookish woman while in bed with the "woman of his dreams," the model, and so he decides to become celebate to win his new love's heart. It only goes downhill from there. It really wants to be an endearing, charming movie, but falls very short. Don't waste your time or money.

PK1 2003-08-18

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

This movie knows that it is mostly worthless. It was never intended to rack up positive critic's reviews. Instead, it is 90 min or so of uninspired reflection wrapped in a pretty package. That packaging, of course, is the lovely Ali Larter. The strategy is to paste Ms. Larter over the majority of the cover, and try to dupe those browsing the video store that her screen time will be relatively proportional to her spot on the cover. This is not the case, and her one sexy scene was diluted and weak, positivly PG-13 by todays standards. If you can think of any other reason to watch this movie (Good Morning, Miami fans perhaps) let me know. Until then, don't judge todays DVDs by their covers.

2003-07-21

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Predictable, bad writing, bad acting and stupid all rolled into one.

Sadly and embarassingly, I picked this flick up because I liked this past season's Thursday night mindlessness of "Good Morning Miami" with Mark Fuerstein. This 90 minute monstrosity was no Good Morning Miami.