Her Minor Thing

I suppose you could categorize Her Minor Thing as a Chick Flick with a twist -- the main character is a 25 year-old-virgin. Her reasons for remaining as such are not religious, she's not holding out for marriage, she's not afraid of having sex, it's just "never happened".

While Jeana (Estella Warren) is dating Tom (the local hunky television reporter who's not all that bright), he unfortunately reveals Jeana's virginity to the entire city while on the air, resulting in her questioning whether he's right for her - and in the mean time running into his cameraman, Paul (Christian Kane), several times accidentally and possibly falling for him.

Even though all the usual romantic comedy situations happen: girl may be with the wrong boy, can't see that the right one is in front of her; the sexy ex-girlfriend as her nemesis; the dorky over-protective friend (played excellently by Rachel Dratch) -- the screenwriters (Debra & Jim Meyers) manage to throw in some pretty funny surprises. The best of which (IMO) is the media frenzy Jeana creates by inspiring women to create a group called V.A.G.U.E. (Virgins Against Guys Under Evolved). I know, I know, it's kind of lame, but it made me laugh. Particularly when random V.A.G.U.E. members would threaten or talk back to Tom and other guys they felt were "holding them back".

All in all, it was pretty formulaic, but I didn't hate it - there was too much to like. I appreciated that Jeana's confusion seemed very real and that nothing in the film was solved magically or written as such that you couldn't see it happening in real life. It was less "movie-moment" and more stuff you see happen around you in people's relationships.

The Q&A after the screening was with Christian Kane, Estella Warren, Debra & Jim Myers, and Director Charles Matthau. Charles' one-word answers were amusing, and the screenwriters had a lot of interesting things to say about the process of writing the film and being involved with the making of it. You could tell that everyone involved had fun during the shoot.

I'll admit, even though Christian Kane is a little too "southern boy" for me, I was drawn in by his strong arms and dreamy eyes enough to fantasize about asking him if I could buy him a whiskey and hang out. And my previously imagined image of Estella Warren as a typical model-type was destroyed -- she was warm, funny, and charming. If I'd been a feeling a little bolder that night, I might have asked them both out...