The OH In Ohio (2006) Movie Review

I think the central problem of this movie, the reason it annoyed me so much even though it has a few funny moments, lies with the fact that it expects us to believe in the most unlikely marriage I’ve ever seen in a movie. Paul Rudd plays Jack Chase, a biology professor. His wife, Priscilla, has never had an orgasm, much to the dismay of Jack. He perceives this as being the only problem in their otherwise perfect lives.

Hold on there, Jack. Though they do have a big house, decent jobs, etc., and though his wife is played by Parker Posey, this is not exactly a perfect life. The reason it is not a perfect life is because Jack is intelligent, funny, jaded and vaguely realistic, while Priscilla is stupid, boring, vacuous, and plucky ad nausea. Don’t get me wrong; Posey has given thoroughly entertaining performances before (“Best in Show,” “Dazed and Confused”), and she will give them again. But Priscilla is a one-dimensional moron, and Posey plays her as constantly optimistic and smiley. By the end we’re supposed to believe that she has learned a lot and all that crap, but she still made me want to staple my eyes shut. The only thing more annoying than Priscilla is Jack’s inability to see that they were not exactly made for each other. These two characters shouldn’t even be in the same movie.

Forgive my bad taste; something, alas, this movie has none of. It’s an irritatingly safe, mainstream sex comedy with no edge whatsoever. That doesn’t in itself make it a bad movie, but it never gets over its completely wrongheaded moments, which aside from the character of Priscilla include attempts at turning into a ‘serious’ romantic comedy, of the Woody Allen/When Harry Met Sally variety. This is completely at odds with the rest of the movie. I think it’s vaguely possible that Priscilla could appear in a good movie, but she has no place in a movie that aspires to be intelligent. Any intelligent movie would question why Jack and Priscilla got together in the first place.

If you insist on hearing the plot (it does not insist on being told): after failing to satisfy his wife in bed, Jack moves into the garage, while Priscilla goes on her own voyage of sexual exploration, as they used to say in ’70s skin flicks. While Jack starts an affair with one of his students, she is getting sex lessons from none other than Liza Minnelli, and visiting a sex shop where Heather Graham works behind the counter. ‘A sex shop where Heather Graham works behind the counter’ sounds less like a plot description and more like a sleazy fantasy, but there you go. Although I could believe in Minnelli as a sex therapist (her pronunciation of ‘vagina’ is one of the movie’s few delights), I just couldn’t believe in Heather Graham selling dildos and banana-scented lube.

There is also a role for Danny DeVito, as Wayne the Pool Guy, who wanders into the story like a character from a different (better) movie, is charming and funny, and is the only thing you’ll probably remember about the movie a week later. However it’s also true that his role does not fit into the movie in any way, but best not to nitpick. He’s an enjoyable tangent in a movie that could have used more, if only to distract our attention from Priscilla and Jack.