The Oh in Ohio
Y
March 16, 2006
Screened at South by Southwest
AUSTIN -- The "oh" in "The Oh In Ohio" is sexual climax, and the film is obsessed with it -- women searching for or addicted to it, men defining themselves by their ability to deliver it. The topic is good for a lot of laughs, though the frankness of such jokes might limit the movie's prospects with mainstream audiences.
Equally likely to hobble the film commercially is a nagging issue with its tone. Halfway through, viewers might find they're not getting the tale the first half led them to expect. Like the lead characters, who struggle to get "almost there" and fail, the movie provides a good time but isn't wholly satisfying in the end.
Parker Posey and Paul Rudd are Priscilla and Jack, a couple who looks perfectly matched from the outside but have suffered 10 years of failure in the bedroom. Priscilla, never having known physical satisfaction, channels her energies into being Cleveland's peppy and perfect civic evangelist; Jack, on the other hand, is so hangdog that a beautiful female student passes him a note reading "You're in pain. I want to help."
After a halfhearted stab at marital counseling -- they're advised to buy a vibrator, and respond with nervous ridicule -- Jack and Priscilla separate. Each pursues a self-improvement campaign: she by attending a masturbation seminar (her instructor is played to rah-rah extremes by Liza Minnelli) and discovering battery-operated fun, he by renting a bachelor pad and making the natural leap into his student's arms.
Decades of romantic comedy have trained us to expect this couple to reunite after sampling greener pastures and learning something about themselves. But no matter what forces tug in this direction, the film has other things in mind. Rudd's performance is tuned to the familiar story arc. But Posey, instead of morphing from a career-gal stereotype into a fully rounded human, segues from one thin characterization into another. Adam Wierzbianski's screenplay doesn't supply enough development to pull this shift off convincingly, and first-time feature director Billy Kent doesn't fill in the gaps.
The filmmakers make their job difficult by grabbing laughs wherever they can along the way: warm and believable here, arch there, over-the-top when a gag demands it. The shifts in tone are especially difficult with the supporting character played by Danny DeVito: First played as a one-dimensional joke and then as a kind of fairy-tale episode in Priscilla's sexual development, he winds up responsible for the tale's emotional resolution. DeVito is surprisingly winning in the role, but that's a lot of weight for him to carry in so little screen time.
Some viewers will be happy enough with the screenplay's flashes of wit that they won't mind the movie's shifting gears and broad strokes. Others, though, will be disappointed by a story that was almost an antidote to the cookie-cutter rom-coms out there but couldn't quite make it happen.
THE OH IN OHIO
Cyan Pictures
Ambush Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Billy Kent
Screenwriter: Adam Wierzbianski
Producers: Amy Salko Robertson, Francey Grace, Miranda Bailey
Executive producers: Debra Grieco, Matthew Leutwyler, Jun Tan
Director of photography: Ramsey Nickell
Production designer: Martina Buckley
Music: Bruno Coon
Co-producer: Julie Sandor
Costumes: Bruce Finlayson
Editors: Michael R. Miller, Paul Bertino
Cast:
Priscilla: Parker Posey
Jack: Paul Rudd
Wayne: Danny DeVito
Kristen: Mischa Barton
Sherri: Miranda Bailey
Alyssa Donahue: Liza Minnelli
Coach: Keith David
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 90 minutes
AUSTIN -- The "oh" in "The Oh In Ohio" is sexual climax, and the film is obsessed with it -- women searching for or addicted to it, men defining themselves by their ability to deliver it. The topic is good for a lot of laughs, though the frankness of such jokes might limit the movie's prospects with mainstream audiences.
Equally likely to hobble the film commercially is a nagging issue with its tone. Halfway through, viewers might find they're not getting the tale the first half led them to expect. Like the lead characters, who struggle to get "almost there" and fail, the movie provides a good time but isn't wholly satisfying in the end.
Parker Posey and Paul Rudd are Priscilla and Jack, a couple who looks perfectly matched from the outside but have suffered 10 years of failure in the bedroom. Priscilla, never having known physical satisfaction, channels her energies into being Cleveland's peppy and perfect civic evangelist; Jack, on the other hand, is so hangdog that a beautiful female student passes him a note reading "You're in pain. I want to help."
After a halfhearted stab at marital counseling -- they're advised to buy a vibrator, and respond with nervous ridicule -- Jack and Priscilla separate. Each pursues a self-improvement campaign: she by attending a masturbation seminar (her instructor is played to rah-rah extremes by Liza Minnelli) and discovering battery-operated fun, he by renting a bachelor pad and making the natural leap into his student's arms.
Decades of romantic comedy have trained us to expect this couple to reunite after sampling greener pastures and learning something about themselves. But no matter what forces tug in this direction, the film has other things in mind. Rudd's performance is tuned to the familiar story arc. But Posey, instead of morphing from a career-gal stereotype into a fully rounded human, segues from one thin characterization into another. Adam Wierzbianski's screenplay doesn't supply enough development to pull this shift off convincingly, and first-time feature director Billy Kent doesn't fill in the gaps.
The filmmakers make their job difficult by grabbing laughs wherever they can along the way: warm and believable here, arch there, over-the-top when a gag demands it. The shifts in tone are especially difficult with the supporting character played by Danny DeVito: First played as a one-dimensional joke and then as a kind of fairy-tale episode in Priscilla's sexual development, he winds up responsible for the tale's emotional resolution. DeVito is surprisingly winning in the role, but that's a lot of weight for him to carry in so little screen time.
Some viewers will be happy enough with the screenplay's flashes of wit that they won't mind the movie's shifting gears and broad strokes. Others, though, will be disappointed by a story that was almost an antidote to the cookie-cutter rom-coms out there but couldn't quite make it happen.
THE OH IN OHIO
Cyan Pictures
Ambush Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Billy Kent
Screenwriter: Adam Wierzbianski
Producers: Amy Salko Robertson, Francey Grace, Miranda Bailey
Executive producers: Debra Grieco, Matthew Leutwyler, Jun Tan
Director of photography: Ramsey Nickell
Production designer: Martina Buckley
Music: Bruno Coon
Co-producer: Julie Sandor
Costumes: Bruce Finlayson
Editors: Michael R. Miller, Paul Bertino
Cast:
Priscilla: Parker Posey
Jack: Paul Rudd
Wayne: Danny DeVito
Kristen: Mischa Barton
Sherri: Miranda Bailey
Alyssa Donahue: Liza Minnelli
Coach: Keith David
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 90 minutes
