FilmSnobReviews

Title: 30 Nights
Rating: NR
Director: Tom Metz III
Starring: Johnny Glacalone, Mandy Kaplan, Don Folger
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins

What It Is: Nick and Willa’s (Galcalone, Kaplan) marriage is dwindling, catalyzed by their uneventful and awkward sex life. They grow farther and farther apart when making parenting and work priority over their relationship. On the brink of separation and possibly divorce, the couple turns to the last resort: a new-age couples’ therapist (Folger) whose plan is for them to have sex for thirty nights straight in order for them to rekindle their love and return their instinct for intimacy.

What We Think: It’s a movie founded upon a formula. In all honesty, there’s little remarkable about it. Despite that statement, I can appreciate it a little more in the conceptual sense, as this fix-our-marriage rom-com makes it a point to be dirtier in its honesty about aging, self-worth, and sex in relation to 7+ years of marriage. As a comedy, it was at one point successful as a single gag made me smile a little and was something I could reflect back on fondly. Don Folger (that guy from Fantastic Beasts, which I also liked him in) puts in a really solid performance for a character that, if handled by a lesser actor, could have easily been the most obnoxious and annoying character in the movie. Otherwise, much of the acting as a whole, while it appears the actors might be having a good time, is pretty akin to a stiff sketch-comedy supported by a script that doesn’t deliver any new and natural humor. This flick’s pretty cut and dry.

Our Grade: D+, The score may seem harsh, but in all honesty, I really don’t have much against this movie. I just didn’t enjoy it that much, I don’t feel much in general. It would probably be an okay comedy for some people, namely people who find awkward sex humor and people falling over funny. To be fair, the progression is good (for what it is) and it gets easier to watch the farther it goes along. But the forced and clumsy jokes, predictable plot, cheesy score, flat editing, and heavy-handed delivery makes for a viewing experience that, as I said, wasn’t really all that remarkable. Well-intentioned and an okay concept, I would be willing to watch a movie much like this but with a more polished presentation and less contrived script.