Sleeping With Other People Alison Brie, Jason Sudeikis, Adam Scott. Directed by Leslye Headland. Rated R. Opens Friday.
Romantic comedies have become such a disreputable genre that it’s easy to forget how enjoyable a well-crafted cinematic romance can be. Writer-director Leslye Headland (Bachelorette) doesn’t reinvent the rom-com with Sleeping With Other People, but she invests a somewhat formulaic story with genuine, flawed characters and a frank tone about both sexuality and emotional hang-ups. After losing their virginities to each other in college, Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudeikis) spend the next decade-plus in similar series of dysfunctional relationships, with mostly themselves to blame. When they reconnect at a sex-addiction meeting, they resolve to remain friends despite (or because of) their strong attraction to each other.
What follows is a fairly predictable road to romance, but it’s paved with funny, relatable moments and refreshing self-awareness, from both the characters and the screenplay. Headland has to engage in a bit of contorting during the third act to line up some of the requisite rom-com elements, and in the process some of the secondary characters (particularly Amanda Peet as Jake’s level-headed boss and placeholder girlfriend) end up somewhat ill-served. But Brie and Sudeikis make for a wonderful couple, and their eventual happily-ever-after is as satisfying as it is inevitable.
