MOVIE REVIEW: THE OH IN OHIO (2006)

Having already subjected ourselves to the Fifty Shades series, my wife and I stumbled upon this title on one of the free streaming platforms and just went with it. At least this film was labeled as a romantic comedy. A title like this on anything but a comedy probably would have given us second thoughts. The title certainly makes you wonder, and the film itself is full of surprises.

Priscilla Chase (Parker Posey) scores big at her advertising job, but after years of marriage, she has never reached a climax in bed. This causes her to lose interest in sex, frustrating her husband, Jack (Paul Rudd), a high school teacher. When Jack’s frustration reaches a breaking point, he moves out and goes full-on mid-life crisis. Priscilla’s friend helps her find a cure for her incomplete pleasure, but Priscilla ends up addicted to her new vibrator. Meanwhile, Paul starts sleeping with one of his 18-year-old students. Relationship dynamics continue to grow more complicated from there.

As you may have guessed, this is a very strange movie. The provocative content does elicit a few laughs, but mostly because you don’t know what else to do when absurd and surprising twists and situations just randomly happen. The trajectory for Priscilla and Jack does not end well for my tastes, so that made the final third of the film hard to sit through. Circumstances and character growth seem to suggest one resolution and we get something else entirely.

The situational humor of Priscilla’s predicament is offset by the creepiness of Jack’s arrangement, even if his student came on to him first. Parker Posey does a fine job of navigating her character’s arc from uptight to wild and liberated. Paul Rudd possesses the kind of everyman qualities that make him believable as an unhappy husband, though his transformation in the gym and bedroom feels like a bit of a stretch. He’s just not the kind of actor I would choose to try to play a guy who suddenly gets his man game in high gear.

Age differences play a big part of the awkwardness of this film. While they lend the film opportunities for contrast humor, there are also scenes and buildups that leave you wondering why the writer-director thought they were good ideas. The ending leaves everyone in a bit of a weird place, including the audience. At times funny but never quite endearing, you may find yourself like me and wonder how much you should actually like this film. It’s almost good, but there are still a few bugs to work out before The Oh in Ohio crosses that threshold.

FINAL RATING: 2.75 out of 5