| The Opposite of Sex | | Cast : | Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan (II), Lisa Kudrow | | Director : | Don Roos | | Studio : | Columbia/Tristar Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen | | Released Date : | May 22, 1998 | | DVD Released Date : | November 17, 1998 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 29, 2005 | | Summary | Almost better than sex... | Content
 | With this film Christina Ricci continues her explorative string of dark little girls that she began with THE ADDAMS FAMILY. But, she's no longer a little girl - at least physically. Now she's a self-absorbed woman who will live her life by destroying others. The resulting film is a dark comedy with a surprising twist at the end.
The story structure turns standard Hollywood fare on its ear, but, like many other independent films, the plotting drags in places. Even it's own anarchy becomes status quo by the third act, watering down the shock level.
Still, this is a good film if you are tired of the regular fare, but be prepared to be offended. That's what it does best. The DVD has a good audio and widescreen video transfer.
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| Rating | | | Date | April 21, 2005 | | Summary | Cool and real! | Content
| "The opposite of sex" is one funny comedy!I thing that this comedy is cool!And it have people like the people in the film in the real world.I meen people like Deede-gays.And this film is helpful for them.In comedies like that they see the funny side of the things.
So i thing that "The opposite of sex" is cool and real!I lke the actors in the film.I love Lisa Kudrow!I see her in my favourite soap opera "Friends".She is gread actric.So thats what i thing for
this film. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 15, 2005 | | Summary | Must see movie | Content
| I love this movie, ever since I originally saw it in a college class a few years ago. Christina Ricci is an absolute dream in this, and Lisa Kudrow is about as far removed from her Phoebe character as you could possibly get. I wasn't so keen on Martin Donovan's character, Bill, so much. He was very emotionless.
It's very fast-paced, with a very sarcastic narrative from Christina's character, which isn't intrusive, and fills you in on stuff you might not have noticed/obvious stuff/stuff that isn't necessary to show in the movie, but needs to be mentioned. It is highly amusing, witty and provides the audience with a release during tense and heavily themed situations. Christina's narrative is quite funny at times, as she comments on her own comments and on the movie itself, and most of the jokes come from her spoken lines. The film is suitably gritty and very well acted. Every character (apart from Bill) is suitably addictive to watch, which you want to know about DeeDee and her life. She smokes, she drinks, she pinches her nipples so they show through her top. A girl we'd all want to be.
The director has the audience in the palm of their hand when at one point during the movie, it shows how easily we can be manipulated by mood and music as well as the points that we show in a character's life.
This movie comes highly recommended, and a must-have for your collection of DVDs. It needs to be seen (and heard) to be believed. And it's the perfect movie to watch to realise you're not the only one out there with problems. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 06, 2005 | | Summary | Dark, edgy comedy with a good story | Content
| I liked this film. I saw it in the theater first and bought it when it was put on home video. I've shown it to several friends and they all enjoyed it. Lisa Kudrow and Christina Ricci are great in this film. Unfortunately some people will be offended by the un-pc views of Lisa Kudrow's character, Lucia, but I guess the truth hurts. Great characters and great writing. The film touches on other lifestyles, the consequences of careless choices, and differing opinions with biting wit. The fact that this film was so good prompted me to watch Don Roos follow-up, All Over the Guy, which was one of the all-time worst films ever made. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 11, 2004 | | Summary | Not bad but overrated | Content
| "The Opposite Of Sex" is a very strange movie. It tries a little too hard to be hip and "edgy" - mainly by having a protagonist, Dedee (played well by Christina Ricci), who's not only not a nice person, but who also tells the audience as much in the many voice-overs she does throughout the course of the movie. The problem is, the voice-overs seem to be there to keep Ricci's presence in the viewer's mind, since she's actually in very little of the movie as a visible character. There is lots of screen time given to Dedee's half-brother Bill, very well underplayed by Martin Donovan; and way too much screen time given to Lucia, the sister of Bill's now deceased boyfriend, played by Lisa Kudrow in a grating, one-note performance that has been inexplicably praised to the skies -- Some people thought she was "robbed" of an Oscar nomination for this movie, which I find laughable. Her character here is in a bad mood almost all the time, making caustic (and unoriginal) comments about everyone, but Kudrow uses the same vocal and physical mannerisms as she does on "Friends" - the farthest away from Phoebe she gets is her mousy brown hair color. She never gets Lucia to seem like a real person though. To be fair, part of the blame must be laid at the feet of Don Roos, the writer/director: Lucia's motivations are never explained, and why she follows Bill around makes no sense except as part of a (possibly incestuous) obsession she had with her own brother -- if the script bothered to explore this aspect of her character it might have been more interesting, but as it is she might as well not be in the movie at all. The same could be said for Lyle Lovett's policeman Carl (and the heavy-handedness of the dialogue right before Carl and Lucia kiss for the first time is painful). Even the motivations of Dedee are vague - making a mess out of other people's lives only makes sense if Dedee is going to get something out of it herself, but what she's really after is never made clear, so although at the end of the movie she says she's changed, it seems lame and contrived - she's just smoked and drank her way through a pregnancy and snuck off leaving the baby with her half brother, so how exactly is she different? And some of Dedee's un-PC observations (like her view of homosexuality and AIDS) are supposed to be knee-slappers, but instead they're just ... well, lame and contrived again, like a lot of the script. Also problematic is that, between Dedee's voice-overs and Lucia's non-stop ranting about everything that's happening, the viewers are constantly being told what to think and feel about characters and situations, instead of just being allowed to experience the story as it unfolds and make up their own minds.
There are some bright spots though. I'm guessing that the writer/director is a (...)male himself, because the three principal gay male characters are the most authentic and best-written characters, and consequently the best-acted as well. In addition to Donovan's strong performance (some complain that he is too low-key, but to me this makes sense for a character who's been paralyzed by grief), Ivan Sergei is terrific as Matt, the sweet but confused boy toy who is not quite as clueless as everyone thinks; and Johnny Galecki is hilarious as Jason, Matt's conniving and possessive "other" boyfriend who's a drama queen - some reviewers complained that Galecki's performance is over the top and stereotypical, but I thought he was realistic and also very funny. It seems to me that Roos could have told a more effective story by concentrating on these three characters and fleshing them out more - giving so much importance to Dedee and especially to Lucia, serves mainly to muddy everything up, IMO. Another plus for the movie is that it looks great - the cinematographer did a remarkable job. One caveat about the DVD though - the disc features a full screen transfer of the film on one side and a "widescreen" transfer on the other; however the widescreen version, while it does give a bit more picture on the left and right sides, seems to have cut off some of the top and bottom of the frame as well. So what's the point?
Although it thinks it's more profound than it really is, "The Opposite Of Sex" is not a bad movie, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea, so I would recommend renting it before buying it. |
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