''My Sexiest Year'' is a 2007

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

starring

Frankie Muniz Francisco Muniz IV (; born December 5, 1985) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the title character in the Fox sitcom ''Malcolm in the Middle'' (2000–2006), which earned him an Emmy Award nomination and two Golden Globe Award n ...

and

Harvey Keitel Harvey Keitel ( ; born May 13, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He first rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and has held a long-running association with ...

and was written and directed by Howard Himelstein. The film is a romantic

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

story in which the kindness bestowed by a glamorous

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

is returned 30 years later by the young man in whom she inspired the first stirrings of confidence and love. The film takes place in 1970s

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

and was shot in various locations such as

Collins Avenue Collins Avenue, partly co-signed State Road A1A, is a major thoroughfare in South Florida, United States. The road runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean in Miami Beach, Florida, one block west. It also runs through the cities of Surfside and S ...

and

Coral Gables Senior High School Coral Gables Senior High School is a secondary school located at 450 Bird Road in Coral Gables, Florida. Coral Gables SHS opened its doors in 1950; its architectural design reflects a Spanish influence, with open courtyards adorned with water fo ...

. The film had its world premiere at the 2007

Hamptons International Film Festival The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October a ...

. As of 2022, the film has yet to receive a DVD/Blu-ray release date.

Plot

Jake Stein (

) is a 17-year-old who lives with his sick mother and grandfather in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He wants nothing more than to be a writer, but when his mother's health takes a turn for the worse, Jake is sent to Miami to live with his father, "Zowie" (

), a small-time "

handicapper Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning. The word also applies to the various methods by which th ...

" who gives

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

tips for a living. Not much of a parent, Zowie has shirked his fatherly responsibilities for most of his son's life. Nonetheless, Jake is excited about the prospects of bonding with his father in sunny Miami. Jake quickly befriends Mark, a local rich kid, whose excessive drug use helps him get through the pressures of teenage life in Southern Florida, where the "in" crowd only cares about how much money one's parents make, who's coming to one's pool party, and whether or not one is getting laid. As Jake tries to navigate the waters of his new home—while trying to connect with his eccentric father—he meets Marina (

Amber Valletta Amber Evangeline Valletta (born February 9, 1974) is an American model and actress. She began her career as a fashion model, landing her first of sixteen American ''Vogue'' covers at the age of eighteen. During the 1990s, Valletta reached the st ...

), a famous

who is in town for a

photo shoot A photo shoot is the process taken by creatives and models that results in a visual objective being obtained. An example is a Model (person), model posing for a photographer at a studio or an outdoor location. A photo shoot is a series of images ...

; the two quickly bond. Jake reminds Marina of her younger brother, who died in a motorcycle accident, and Jake is unable to get over the fact that such a beautiful woman is interested in him. But just when things seem to be going right, all goes terribly wrong. Jake must figure out how to become a man, if he is ever going to finish writing his

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

Cast

as Jake Stein **

Christopher McDonald Christopher McDonald (born February 15, 1955) is an American film, television, theatre and voice actor. McDonald is best known for playing the villainous professional golfer Shooter McGavin in the 1996 comedy ''Happy Gilmore''. Other notable ...

as Adult Jake Stein *

as Zowie *

as Marina *

Ryan Cabrera Ryan Frank Cabrera ( ) (born July 18, 1982) is an American musician. He began his career as a lead singer for the Dallas band Rubix Groove before pursuing his solo career. Following the 2001 release of independent album '' Elm St.'', he released ...

as Rickie *

Haylie Duff Haylie Katherine Duff (born February 19, 1985) is an American actress, singer and songwriter, and the older sister of American singer and actress Hilary Duff. She is best known for her roles as List of 7th Heaven characters#Sandy Jameson, Sandy ...

as Debbie *

Karolína Kurková Karolína Kurková (; born 28 February 1984) is a Czech model and actress, known for her work as a former Victoria's Secret Angel and ''Vogue'' cover star. Mario Testino praised the "proportions of her body and her face, as well as her energy le ...

as Pia *

Frances Fisher Frances Louise Fisher (born May 11, 1952) is a British-born American actress. She began her career in theatre and later starred as record executive Suzette 'Red' Saxon in the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' (1985). In film, she is ...

as Faye *

Allan Rich Benjamin Norman Schultz (February 8, 1926 – August 22, 2020), known professionally as Allan Rich, was an American character actor. Career Rich began his acting career when he was nine years old. He appeared in the Broadway productions ''I'll ...

as Papa *

Victor Alfieri Victor Alfieri (born July 30, 1971) is an American actor and writer, born in Italy and raised in the U.S. Biography Alfieri was born in Rome and raised an only child by his mother and grandmother, spending summers working in the family's restaur ...

as Fabrizio Contini *

Nick Zano Nick Zano (born March 8, 1978) is an American actor. Zano is known for having played List of What I Like About You characters#Vince, Vince in The WB's sitcom ''What I Like About You (TV series), What I Like About You''. He hosted MTV's former in ...

as Pierce *

Rachel Specter Rachel Specter is an American writer, producer and actress. She was a producer and writer of ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' (2015–2019). She began her career as an actress but has since has written for the TV series like ''One Tree Hill'' and ''Cougar ...

as Sue Ryker * Dan Levy as Mark *

Daphna Kastner Daphna Kastner (born April 17, 1961) is a Canadian film and television actress, screenwriter, and film director. She is married to American actor Harvey Keitel. Personal life She and Harvey Keitel secretly married in Jerusalem, while attending ...

as Gloria * Noah Matthews as Mikey * Ali Costello as Allison * Chick Bernhard as Rosie * Ashley Blackwell as Rena * Jill Curran as Tammy * Nay K. Dorsey as Jimbo * Angelina Hakansson as Karina * Michelle Jones as Shelly Jenkins * Luis Selgas as Freddy Wilson * Alfred Nittoli as Gene * Ante Novakovic as Ange * Luke Pierucci as Vinny * Sal Richards as Nick * Jennifer Safina as Liz * Anthony Schweiker as Eddie * Roger Wilson as Paul * Evis Xheneti as Greta * Christine Hitt as Pool Girl (uncredited)

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, my_sexiest_year 2007 films 2007 romantic comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films Films scored by Anthony Marinelli 2000s English-language films 2000s American films