Film Reviews

Forty Days and Forty Nights

• Rating:
• Director: Michael Lehmann
• Starring: Adam Trese
• Details: US / 92 minutes / (18).

After the girl he thought was the love of his life, Nicole (Shaw) dumps him; Matt (Harnett) decides to live the easy life of a bachelor for a while. Unfortunately, due to his grief over the abrupt termination of that relationship and a large dose of good old-fashioned Catholic guilt, Matt can't seem to get any satisfaction from the numerous casual relationships he enjoys. So, in a bid to finally get over that relationship, he decides to become celibate for lent. However, what he didn't reckon upon is falling in love on the first night of his vow of chastity.
Based on the flimsiest of premises, Forty Days and Forty Nights suffers from an alarming lack of imagination. Once the initial comedic principal has been established - relatively early in the movie - the script remains annoyingly static, wheeling out a succession of extremely familiar gags, which only serve to remind the viewer of how little the plot has been developed. If the central actor was more talented, perhaps it might have been a little more bearable, but sadly Hartnett possesses the charisma of a plank of work. And let's not even mention his comedic ability.

Review by Garreth Murphy