Dirty Love

Dirty Love was heavily panned on its release in 2005. I watched this movie with great trepidation figuring it would be a complete waste of time. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this film had some great comical qualities that were sometimes overdone. Some of the excess was to the point of nausea. There was one scene in particular I could have done without. With that considered, I felt that the humorous elements in this film outweighed the excess to the point where I could actually find myself moderately recommending this film. But I won’t go quite that far.

Jenny McCarthy wrote and starred in this comedy, which tells the story of a heart-broken photographer who wants to try and win back the affection of her male model boyfriend of two years. The film starts out on Hollywood Boulevard, which was interesting, since I recently returned from a trip to that location. McCarthy’s character (Rebecca) visits a fortune teller on that road…I don’t know if it’s the same location, but I remember seeing a fortune teller store front on Hollywood during my recent visit. Rebecca learns from the fortune teller that she will find true love if she is watching for her white pony…a play on words that ultimately leads her to understand where her opportunity for true love lies. Her friends are odd and one-dimensional, especially Carmen Electra, who plays a ghetto talking body waxer. Her friends set her up on various dates in an attempt to make her boyfriend jealous. Instead we get puke down the blouse and plenty of other bodily functions, but especially butt fetishes. Weird…but oddly funny.

The screenplay provided a rather weak and extremely formulaic plot that really offered nothing new to this genre. The characters were so laughably flat that they completely lacked any credibility. The dialogue was tedious at times, due in large part to the characteristics assigned to the players. The only strong point in the writing was the comic elements, which were sometimes refreshing. The comic situations set up in the script often involved toilet humor, which is sophomoric, but also lends to cheap laughs. Although tawdry, I actually got some pretty good laughs from it. There is a grocery store scene that involves another bodily function that was so disgusting I almost turned the movie off. In effect, the only redeeming quality in the writing was the guffaw inducing comedy that occasionally hit. Some of the comic elements fell flat.

Jenny McCarthy was actually very funny. I know she won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in this film, but I disagree. Her facial expressions and delivery have the capacity for inducing laughter. Although she was not entirely funny, I thought that she took a rather weak script and managed to keep it interesting (even if she is to blame for the script, too). Her character had a little bit of dimension, but not much. I was intrigued by her character in spite of the fact that she was very predictable. Carmen Electra justifiably won Worst Supporting Actress for this film. She was horrid. In totality, the cast was moderately good, but didn’t have a lot to work with here.

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