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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Showtime Ent.
Salesrank: 35318
Released: November 29, 2005 |
| Our Price: $5.21 |
| Used Price: $2.87 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's play "La Ronde", this ensemble drama follows the sexual dynamics of eight different characters whose lives intersect through their shared partners, revealing their fears, hopes, heartbreaks, lies, secrets and the brutal truths behind closed doors. By constantly underlining the power of sex, the film manages to leave us with sympathy and compassion for those who simply cannot resist the force. Anne Heche, Elizabeth Banks, Kerry Washington, Tom Everett Scott, Azura Skye, Eion Bailey, Dule Hill, Carla Gallo and James Le Gros all star in this contemporary treatment of a timeless topic. And Director Ken Kwapis (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) ensures that this carnal comedy of manners never misses a beat.
Sexual Life Reviews:
Invigorating 
2008-04-21 - Sexual Life is very well organized as well as a great plot. This film definately gets 5 stars from me. It has a wonderful cast and it involves various relationships that are combined both directly and indirectly. I love this film and Kerry Washiongton and Eoine Bailey are HOT HOT HOT!!!!
Not about SEX
2007-02-02 -
The movie is actually not as sexual as the title sounds. Sex in this movie plays a role of linking people, or more deeply, relationships. Why do people have sex? There is really no random sex. Everybody has it for a reason, that is, to satiate their desire, be it to fill their emptiness, to prove themselves, to escape from pressure, to fulfill a social duty, or just to make a living. With other reviewers mentioning the similarity between this movie and "Closer", I actually find Sexual Life a much better one, more entertaining, more questioning and more structuring. It's like watch "little miss sunshine", there are no big story, no perfect heros or heroines, no happy endings. But there is always some part of the movie that touches you, makes you wonder and allow you to think. Happiness, emptiness, naivity, sophistication, tragdy, comdedy, loyalty, treachery, truth, lie, eternity,momentariness....indeed there are lots of things you will find in this movie. The more you watch it, the more you feel, and the more you live in it. Highly recommended.
Sex is private but the impact ripples on 
2006-10-31 - I admit it... I watched this movie for the title. I live in a highly
censored country yet they were showing it on Star Movies! I expected B-movie tawdry but was rewarded with a good movie about sex.
The movie is a decent exploration of the ripple effect of sex -- not a
masterpiece -- but a thoughtful look at the subject.
It's not a spoiler to say that the story line jumps from partner to
partner through a series of sexual encounters. At times, the links loop
around to reveal connection even the character are unaware of.
It reminded me of the STD warnings that when you have sex with a
person, you are also having sex with every one of THEIR partners.
With any ensemble caste movie, the acting isn't equal but there really
is no bad acting in this film. I thought Anne Heche really stood out
and her performance makes this a "must see" for Heche fans (like me.)
If I was a TV director, I'd take this idea and turn it into a
mini-series. Each one of the sub-plots could have been given given its
own 73-minute treatment and explored a few of the loose ends that could not be developed in 96 minutes.
A Glimpse Into Diffferent Lives
2006-07-25 - I just watched this movie & found it to be even better than I originally thought it would be. The movie is about different people and how their sex lives and thus relationships intertwine. I found the characters to be interesting & the parts were well-acted. I thought it was neat how the film started with the character Lorna then ended with her. It was very well put together and flowed very nicely.
The writing was also very good. It's thought-provoking & really makes you think about relationships. I agree as one of the previously reviewers said, that if you liked the movie Closer you'll probably like Sexual Life. However, if I were you I wouldn't expect this film to be quite as powerful as Closer. It's similar in that it deals with relationships, but it is not as personal. The viewer is held at more of a distance, whereas in Closer you feel as though you know the characters so well. Closer is so intimate. I saw Sexual Life to be more of a glimpse into people's lives. That is the way it is meant to be though. It's not quite the same kind of film as Closer, so I guess it just depends what you prefer.
I would definitely recommend Sexual Life. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I know I will watch it again and again.
A Clever if Acidic Dialogue About Relationships
2006-07-14 - Writer/Director Ken Kwapis ('About a Boy', 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants', episodes on TV series 'ER', 'The Office', 'Malcolm in the Middle', etc) knows his ways around the ups and downs of contemporary relationships, weighing the importance of the physical aspect of the union against the para-physical benefits and makes no prescription for which is of more importance. SEXUAL LIFE explores several couples whose married or about to be married status receives the testing of infidelity.
A wedding photographer is frustrated with his executive girlfriend's lack of intimacy and seeks physical satisfaction through an upscale prostitute who has her own rather solid ground views of her business. The photographer's girlfriend is finding physical satisfaction with her married architect boss who in turn is trying to hide his infidelity from his wife who in turn feels she must seek outside satisfaction with an old college flame who happens to be gay and she turns to a hotel clerk at the point of a fantasy liaison for gratification. The hotel clerk happens to be having an affair with an engaged African American girl and is frustrated about her impending marriage to a frustratedly 'correct' African American male who feels he is following a proscribed duty and seeks attention from the prostitute who opens the whole story. How these intersecting couples work out their dilemmas and resolve their individual needs for expanded physical needs in the presence of the safety of relationships is the clever puzzle Kwapis presents - with the conclusions primarily left up to us, the viewers.
The cast is homogeneously fine and attractive - Eion Bailey, Elizabeth Banks, Fionnula Flanagan, Anne Heche, Dule Hill, Sam Jaeger, Kerry Washington, Steven Weber, Steven Williams, Shirley Knight, James LeGros, Tom Everett Scott, and Azura Skye along with the minor characters. Kwapis keeps the flow integrated so that the story does indeed seem like a series of coincidences. The sexual scenes are more suggested than graphic and should not offend even the most skeptical viewer. This was, after all, a movie made for Showtime TV, but it stands very well as a tightly conceived and acted lesson about relationships. Well worth watching. Grady Harp, July 06
