A Look at Relationships With Style and Substance

Rick Rosenthal’s sharp, funny yet serious romantic comedy “Just a Little Harmless Sex” shows that not all the possibilities have been mined in that familiar turf, yuppie emotional angst.

Inspired by an incident in his own life, Rosenthal had yet another inspiration: to have Marti Noxon, co-producer of TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” write the women’s scenes and Roger Mills, a former assistant director, write the men’s scenes, then have them collaborate on the final sequences.

This approach gives the film a welcome edge, suggesting that when it comes to discussing sex, women, among themselves, can get just as raunchy as men. More important, we’re made to feel that when members of either sex are getting down and dirty in their sex talk, it is but a prelude to what really concerns them, and that is being in love with someone who loves them in return.

None of this is exactly news, but the film has such verve, such zingy dialogue and such a good ensemble cast that it is a brisk, shrewd delight. Its makers know better than to allow themselves to be caught up in the self-absorption of their characters and therefore create ways in which their people can convincingly learn to look beyond themselves.

A young man, Alan (Robert Mailhouse), driving home after an evening at a strip club to celebrate a friend’s birthday, encounters a beautiful young woman (Robin Blazak) with a stalled car. He stops to help, she comes on brazenly and, before you can say Hugh Grant, the cops arrive in force. Alan has no idea the woman is a hooker, and she, as it happens, hits on him at the very moment he’s feeling a little uncertain about having the child his lovely wife Laura (Alison Eastwood) wants.

Stunned at the news, Laura gathers her pals Terrianne (Jessica Lundy) and Allison (Kimberly Williams) around her, and they decide to head to a favorite hangout. Wouldn’t you know that they arrive not long after Alan and his best pals Danny (Jonathan Silverman) and Brent (William Ragsdale) have left, accompanying Alan home, where he intends to have it out with his wife. No sooner do the guys arrive at Alan and Laura’s house than Laura’s glamorous mother Elaine (Lauren Hutton) arrives.

A stunning woman of much sophistication, she has wisdom to dispense to her distraught son-in-law while having a little flirtatious fun with his pals, who are knocked out by this dazzling older woman of any young man’s fantasies. Elaine is a wonderful role for Hutton--one of her best yet--and she has assured, sultry fun with it.

Elaine is the worldly adult who makes her daughter, son-in-law and their friends look mighty childish in their behavior, yet she also understands that their pain and confusion are very real. When Laura and Alan and their pals finally do confront one another, they start discovering the ways in which they need to grow up.

When Terrianne and Danny, the most brash members of the group, actually start talking to each other, they start dealing with the reasons why their marriage broke up. This is the film’s strongest scene, in which an embarrassed Danny discusses a harmless idiosyncrasy wrongly interpreted by Terrianne, who in turn reveals her own hang-ups. To be sure, other revelations ensue before the evening is over. Each of the film’s key characters has his or her moment of truth, and the ensemble cast responds with skill and passion, especially Williams, when she confesses her true love.

Helping Hutton provide a mature perspective is actor-musician Tito Larriva (formerly of the Plugz and the Cruzados and now of Tito and the Tarantula, he also composed the music for the film). As Chuey, the club’s chef and proprietor, he observes of the men--and he could be speaking of the women as well--that they all have nice cars, nice homes and all the money they need, but that they are all messed up when it comes to love. These are members of the privileged “want-it-all” yuppie class who are moving toward their 30s and beyond and beginning to fear that they’re not going to get everything they want.

Others contributing stellar moments are Rachel Hunter as an observant waitress, Michael Ontkean as a seductive yoga instructor and Nino Bettencourt as a pizza deliveryman with no lack of curiosity.

A TV and film veteran, Rosenthal knows how to make “Just a Little Harmless Sex” zip along breezily with style and assurance yet invite us to reflect as well as laugh. It’s a fun diversion that also makes a raft of young actors look good.

* MPAA rating: R, for pervasive sex-related dialogue, language and sexuality/nudity. Times guidelines: adult themes and situations.

‘Just a Little Harmless Sex’

Alison Eastwood: Laura

Robert Mailhouse: Alan

Lauren Hutton: Elaine

Jessica Lundy: Terrianne

A Phaedra Cinema release of a Miss Q production. Producer-director Rick Rosenthal. Producer Deborah Capogrosso. Screenplay by Roger Mills and Marti Noxon. Cinematographer Bruce Surtees. Editor James Austin Stewart. Music Tito Larriva. Production designer Amy Danger. Art director Joseph Dunn. Set decorator Dianne Kalemkaris. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

In general release.