MY AWKWARD SEXUAL ADVENTURE (Sean Garrity). 103 minutes. Opens Friday (April 19). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NN
There are a few things about My Awkward Sexual Adventure that work really well. Emily Hampshire is pretty great, and director Sean Garrity has done an excellent job of blending Toronto and Winnipeg locations. The script? Well, that’s another matter.
Jonas Chernick (who also wrote the screenplay) plays Jordan, a Winnipeg accountant whose girlfriend (Sarah Manninen) dumps him just before he’s going to propose.
Convinced that his sexual inadequacy is the problem, Jordan goes to Toronto, crashes with his horndog buddy Dandak (Vik Sahay) and winds up meeting Julia (Hampshire), an exotic dancer who grudgingly offers to help him improve his bedroom game if he digs her out of a financial hole. You know where things go from there.
Hampshire nails the world-weary Julia, even when the movie does its best to treat her like a punchline instead of a character. Which is another problem: My Awkward Sexual Adventure is selling itself as an edgy, sexually honest romantic comedy, but it’s pretty conventional.
The bedroom stuff is no more graphic than an episode of Sex And The City, and Chernick’s thin conception of Jordan as a dullard who can’t easily articulate what he wants makes him a pretty bland hero. The closing shot is terrific – but it’ll just make you wonder why the entire film couldn’t have been conceived with the same wit and warmth.
