Uh, Oh in Ohio

"The Oh In Ohio" (dir. Billy Kent, US, 2006, 88 mins.) has a GREAT cast: Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Danny DeVito, Heather Graham (who is uncredited for some odd reason) and Liza Minnelli, for gawd's sake! The script portends to be a farce. However, for some reason that I just can't put my finger on, it doesn't work. I smiled. A lot! And the scenario of having Liza with a Z as a sex therapist leading a roomful of women in a workshop to discover their vaginas seems LOADED with hysterical possibilities, but it just comes off as crass; Parker Posey, whose 'sexually disfunctional' (read frigid) over achiever, falling in love with a vibrator comes off as crass; and Paul Rudd, playing her husband, taking 'vengeance' by having an affair with one of his high school students ("The O.C."'s Mischa Barton) comes off as chauvinistic and crass.

Oddly, or ironically enough, Danny DeVito, who one would expect to be the vilest of the characters, is the ONE character who reveals a soul of affection, tenderness and intimacy. He is the only actor or character in the film who actually came close to a genuine moment for me.

The rest of the film is reduced to being a long dirty joke. Mind you, it's a dirty joke performed by a stellar cast. However, it's still a dirty joke, which explains why it is disappearing (if appearing at all!) at the theaters. Maybe the poster says it all...