Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Fantastic!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Dedee Truitt (Christina Ricci) is a 16 year old from Creve Coeur, Louisiana. She runs away to her gay half-brother high school teacher Bill Truitt (Martin Donovan). He's living with his foolish boyfriend Matt Mateo (Ivan Sergei). She has everyone wrapped around her little finger except Bill's stuck-up friend Lucia DeLury (Lisa Kudrow) who is the sister of Bill's dead ex-lover Tom. Dedee is manipulative and outrageously inappropriate. She seduces Matt, claims Matt is the father of her unborn child, steal $10k from Bill, and runs away to L.A. Matt's other boyfriend Jason Bock (Johnny Galecki) wants Matt back and maliciously lies to Sheriff Carl Tippett (Lyle Lovett) about being molested when he was Bill's student. That's when things start to turn crazy.Dedee is selfish and morally corrupt. And she's played with biting wit by Ricci. She gives a running inner monologue and that is even worst than her inappropriate comments. Everybody is running around orbiting this little tart. The only reasonable person seems to be Lucia but she may be the most troubled of all. She's been hopelessly pining for a gay guy while ignoring an admirer. Lisa Kudrow is just as effective performing the polar opposite personality. She is just as funny in her frustration with Bill.

Dedee Truitt, a wild, rebellious Louisiana teenager, runs away from home after her stepfather's funeral and moves in with her half-brother Bill. Bill, who is much older than his sister, is a gay teacher living in an affluent suburban community in Indiana with his young lover, Matt. Dedee takes a fancy to the good-looking Matt who, unknown to Bill, is actually bisexual, and seduces him, then elopes with him, after tricking him into believing that he has got her pregnant. (She is pregnant, but by another man). To make matters worse for Bill, he is falsely accused of sexually assaulting Jason, one of his former students.The plot gets a lot more complicated than that, but I won't set out all its twists and turns. Three other characters who play an important part are Randy, Dedee's ex-boyfriend and the real father of her child, Lucia, the sister of Bill's deceased partner Tom, and Carl, a policeman who is romantically interested in Lucia. (Lucia is always apologising for the fact that her name is not pronounced in the Italian way, which she seems to think was an error on the part of her parents, but in fact the pronunciation she uses, "Loosha", was the traditional English form of the name, and is still preserved in the name of the Caribbean island of St Lucia). The film was both written and directed by Don Roos. It was the first film to be directed by him, although he had previously written a few scripts. These included "Diabolique", that dreadful remake of Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques", and "Single White Female", an enjoyable if not particularly original thriller, but "The Opposite of Sex" is far more imaginative than either of those.(It perhaps has some similarities with Roos's quirky script for "Love Field"). The film has been described as "politically incorrect" for its view of gay life, and was even marketed under the slogan "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be offended". I did not, however, find anything about the film particularly offensive. Certainly, Jason is a fairly unpleasant character, and Matt a bit of an airhead, but the idea that no gay or bisexual character can ever be shown in anything other than a positive light is a patronising one, like the idea that no film can ever have a black villain. In any case, Jason is treated in a much less negative way in this black comedy than a character making false allegations against a teacher would have been treated in a serious drama, and the film has one positive gay character in the shape of the decent, kindly and likable Bill. Bill is also portrayed as quiet, sober and conservative, something unusual in Hollywood which generally prefers gay characters to be camp, witty and flamboyant. There is a quite remarkable performance from the eighteen-year-old Christina Ricci as Dedee. Ricci had already made her name as a child star in films like "The Addams Family" and its sequel and "Casper", and had made the transition to more adult roles in "The Ice Storm" the previous year. Dedee is a wonderful character- rude, cynical and with no respect for anyone, but possessed of a certain intelligence and a ready wit. She says that she will not turn out to have a heart of gold, and means it, but we sense that her crude, rebellious nature is the result of an unhappy childhood, the details of which we never precisely learn. The title of the film derives from one of her sarcastic observations about life, that sex is precisely the opposite of what people should want, as it leads to kids, disease or, "worst of all, relationships". Ricci received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy; watching this film reminded me of how surprised I was to learn that she has never won, or even been nominated for, an Oscar. But then, "The Opposite of Sex" is the sort of clear-eyed, unsentimental film that the Academy has never much cared for. Of the other actors the one who most impressed me was Martin Donovan as Bill. Johnny Galecki as Jason was a bit annoying and Lisa Kudrow as Lucia occasionally reminded me too much of her Phoebe from "Friends", even though the characters are supposed to be quite different. The American cinema- and this was as true in the nineties as it is today- is often criticised for its conservatism- not in the political sense but in the sense that it can become excessively reliant on the familiar and the tried and tested. Occasionally, however, Hollywood can come up with something brilliantly new, and there were a number of such films in the late nineties, Peter Weir's "The Truman Show" and Sam Mendes's "American Beauty" being two particularly outstanding examples. "The Opposite of Sex" is perhaps not in the same class as those masterpieces, but it is nevertheless a refreshingly cynical black comedy with an original take on human relationships. 8/10

Personally, it annoys me when a film is marketed as something it's not. For the most part, these films disappoint because of unrealized expectations. There's no reason for studios to do this; they're marketing their movies to people who wouldn't like them (which leads to bad word of mouth), and alienates the audience that would actually like the film. The trailer for "The Opposite of Sex" promises a gleefully wicked and twisted comedy, but what the film offers is anything but.DeeDee Truitt (Christina Ricci) is a sixteen-year-old who after the death of her step-dad, takes off from her Alabama home and heads to Indiana to with her gay half-brother, Bill (Martin Donovan). To avoid giving anything away, I'll stop at saying that this leads to a number of complications.As much as I griped about the film being horrifically mismarketed, I still liked the film. I'd give it a weak recommendation, but I wouldn't hesitate in doing so. It's well acted, and I actually felt for a lot of the characters.Christina Ricci has completely rejected Hollywood, and instead concentrated on perfecting her craft instead of becoming a tabloid queen. Her hard work has paid off; few performances are different from DeeDee Truitt and any of the wholesome characters she's played in Disney movies. DeeDee is the ultimate problem child: foul-mouthed, slutty, and completely amoral. Yet Ricci allows us really feel for DeeDee on some level. As Bill, DeeDee's half-brother, Martin Donovan is like Ned Flanders, only not as obnoxious (and gay instead of evangelical Christian). He's too nice for his own good, but he's not a complete doormat either. He's still pining over the death of his lover, Tom (Colin Ferguson), which is affecting his relationship with Matt (Ivan Sergei). Speaking of, Matt is a self-acknowledged dim bulb, but he's not as dumb as he first seems. Small, but over the top, performances by Johnny Galecki and William Lee Scott are also effective.Many people have been raving about Lisa Kudrow's performance as Tom's sister, Lucia. It's effective, but for the most part not much different than her usual characters. She's just more cynical and less ditzy than her other characters. But the differences aren't all that noticeable. Kudrow is effective, but Sheriff Carl Tippett, played by Lyle Lovett, is the one I felt for the most. He's earnest and really cares for Lucia, although she is too busy looking after Bill to realize it.The film, written and directed by Don Roos, is effective, but a little too twisted and convoluted for its own good. It's all a little much, and it's possible to become lost at some point. Still, I liked it. Just don't expect the blistering comedy that the trailer promises.

I selected this movie on an impulse and ended up loving every bit of it. It isn't as black a comedy as most people profess, you laugh at some very witty scenes and a few conversations are very poignant and insightful. Note these bits: Lucia and Bill at the hotel in LA when they have a conversation about relationships, Matt and Bill at the log cabin in Canada and lastly, when Dedee delivers the last voice-over. I will remember this movie for quite some time. We have a trash-talking southerner: Christina Ricci (in one of her better roles) who takes some pretty illogical decisions in life and affects so many lives around her. Martin Donovan shines as her half-brother, seemingly very pacified and unnerved about things in life (a doormat personality, perhaps?). Watch out for Lisa Kudrow: she steals the show with her expressions and acting.