Sleeping With Other People
After 2012’s The Bachelorette, Leslye Headland’s latest offering, Sleeping With Other People, is a refreshing take on the tired rom-com formula.
Our story begins with a conventional meet-cute: Lainey (Alison Brie) is hammering on the door of college guy Matthew (Adam Scott), yelling about losing their virginities. She’s about to get kicked out of the dorm when she’s saved by Jake (Jason Sudeikis), resident nice-guy-on-the-block, who invites her into his room. Hours of conversation later they realise they’ve got amazing chemistry––too bad Lainey bolts the next day without so much as a goodbye note.
They don’t cross paths again until 12 years later––at a sex addiction meeting, ironically––and they’re very different people: Jake is a serial womaniser, and Lainey can’t keep herself from cheating on her boyfriends with Matthew, the one that got away in college. They’re equally bad at relationships, so why not just be friends? But this is a rom-com, so we know they’re going to fall for each other one way or another, and what makes Sleeping With Other People so memorable is the how.
It’s an honest take on the modern love story, and its portrayal of two friends who are determined to stay friends despite everyone thinking they’re a couple is just the right amount of funny-yet-touching. (SC)
Rating: ***
BY SILVIA CHEUNG
