SEEING OTHER PEOPLE
[ 1/2] (One and one-half stars)
Clunky sex comedy.Running time: 90 minutes. Rated R (strong sexual content, language and some drug material). At the AMC Empire 25 and the UA Union Square.
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PUT together two TV writers and a host of TV actors, and it’s not surprising that you would wind up with something that looks like a small-screen sitcom.
What is astonishing is that husband-and-wife writers Wally Wolodarsky (who also directed) and Maya Forbes, with combined credits that include “The Simpsons” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” could churn out something as nasty and ludicrous as “Seeing Other People.”
A premise that is equal parts silly and cynical is stretched over 90 uncomfortable minutes, hitting just about every relationship cliché imaginable with incongruous spurts of graphic sex talk spiking the mostly ho-hum dialogue.
Ed (Jay Mohr) and Alice (Julianne Nicholson of “Ally McBeal”) have been a happy couple for five years but, with their wedding day looming, Alice suddenly decides she hasn’t had enough sex partners – and tells an incredulous Ed she thinks they both should play around as much as possible before they tie the knot.
Alice almost immediately falls into bed with a landscaping contractor (“Blue Crush” hunk Matt Davis), while Ed, after initially feeling hurt, enthusiastically embraces the notion of an “open” relationship.
Naturally, their love struggles to survive all this blatant infidelity, and Wolodarsky and Forbes struggle to pad out the thin story with a couple of tacked-on subplots featuring Alice’s spiteful sister, Claire (Lauren Graham), Ed’s cat-loving best friend, Lou (Josh Charles), and the couple’s uber-romantic friend Carl (Andy Richter.)
Mohr manages to bring some heart to his put-upon character, but Nicholson is waging an uphill battle to make the selfish Alice sympathetic.