We’re not really in the Jessica Biel fan-club, as yet — for the most part, she’s been attractive but bland in a succession of under-written love interest roles in terrible films, such as “Next” and “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.” Other than a pretty good performance in Stephan Elliot’s “Easy Virtue,” her more interesting choices have been been disaster-plagued: “Powder Blue” went straight-to-video, and is allegedly terrible, while David O Russell’s “Nailed” still remains uncompleted, over a year since the cameras last rolled on it.
But her new project seems like it could be a little more interesting. She’s now producing and set to star in the romantic comedy “Fucking Engaged,” from playwright and first-time screenwriter Julia Brownell, about an engaged couple who, concerned by their parents’ passionless marriages, make a pact to have sex every day in the lead up to their wedding. There’s a certain pedigree among the producers, with Dan Halsted (“Garden State”), and Aaron Ryder & Glen Basner (“The Road”) both on board.
We’re pretty fed up of romantic comedies which ignore sex completely. It’s totally taboo in most generic, Julia Roberts/Matthew McConaughey-type entries in the genre, which paints a very odd picture of modern relationships, especially considering the central role it plays in most of the classics of the genre, from “Annie Hall” to “When Harry Met Sally” to “Knocked Up.” Fuck, even “It Happened One Night” is swimming in sex, on a subtextual level at least. Between this, and the “Friends With Benefits” script that Natalie Portman is developing (one of our favorite unmade scripts of the last few years, in its original form of “Fuckbuddies”), it’s refreshing to see a bit of smut returning to the genre. So long as Biel can bring the comedy chops she brought to “Easy Virtue,” this could be interesting.