Is it really so hard to make a funny, dirty sex comedy?
Apparently so, judging from the recent, brain-dead The Babymakers -- and now the laugh-challenged For a Good Time, Call... Not only isn't it funny -- it's not sexy, either.
This soggy pudding of a film stars Lauren Anne Miller, one of its writers, an actress with no discernible comic timing. She's teamed with Ari Graynor, a genuinely luscious and funny actress who makes unfortunate choices in the scripts to which she says yes.
They're two young women who have hated each other since college -- but are thrown together as roommates when neither can afford to live alone in Manhattan. Lauren (Miller) has been dumped by her drippy lawyer boyfriend, who wants to "evaluate" their relationship while he spends the summer working in Italy -- and kicks her out when he leaves. And Katie (Graynor) is a wannabe writer who lives in what was her grandmother's (formerly) rent-controlled apartment near Gramercy Park.
Let's get this over with quickly. Katie works part-time as a phone-sex operator; Lauren convinces her to go independent, so she can make all the money, with Lauren as her billing department. Before long, they're both working the phones, which helps to loosen up the previously uptight Lauren.
The jokes should write themselves; in this case, they don't. Graynor performs the labors of Hercules, but to little effect. This material may be obvious but it can still be funny.
But it's not. End of story. No good times to be found here. Move along.
Find more reviews, interviews and commentary on my website.