''Just a Little Harmless Sex'' is a 1999 American romantic

sex comedy Sex comedy, erotic comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such ...

film which revolves around a stranded motorist (and

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

)'s offer to perform

oral sex Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth) and the throat. Cunnilingus is oral sex per ...

on a monogamous man who stops to help her. The unlikely

good Samaritan In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

must telephone his wife to bail him out in the middle of the night upon his arrest for the encounter. She throws him out of the house just a few days later and goes out with her friends to enjoy a sexy night on the town. The denouement takes place when all the parties meet at a local nightclub for explanations and apologies. The film was directed by

Rick Rosenthal Richard L. Rosenthal, Jr. (born June 15, 1949) is an American film instructor and director, known for directing '' Halloween II'' and '' Halloween: Resurrection''. Early life, family and education Rosenthal was born in New York City, the son o ...

, written by Roger Mills and

Marti Noxon Martha Mills Noxon (born August 25, 1964) is an American television and film writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as a screenwriter and executive producer on the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1 ...

, and stars

Alison Eastwood Alison Eastwood (born May 22, 1972) is an American actress. After three uncredited roles between 1980 and 1997, she appeared as Mandy, the love interest of John Cusack in ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' (1997). Early life Eastwood w ...

and

Jonathan Silverman Jonathan Elihu Silverman (born August 5, 1966) is an American actor, known for his roles in the comedy films ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'', ''Weekend at Bernie's'', and its sequel ''Weekend at Bernie's II''. Early life and education Silverman was ...

. The film received generally poor reviews from critics, with a

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

rating of 20% derived from five professional reviews. Writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Lawrence Van Gelder Lawrence Ralph Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor in journalism who worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Ar ...

compared the film to a TV

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

, and said the movie was "well cast, well acted and thoroughly inconsequential". Writing for ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', Lael Loewenstein said "what saves

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

from being utterly predictable is its zesty dialogue".

References

External links

* * 1999 films 1999 independent films 1999 romantic comedy films American romantic comedy films American teen romance films 1990s English-language films American sex comedy films American independent films Films directed by Rick Rosenthal Films with screenplays by Marti Noxon 1990s sex comedy films 1990s American films {{1990s-romantic-comedy-film-stub