It's a singular privilege we critics have, being able to document
the artistic development of our rising young cinematic artistes as
their careers begin to blossom. Let's take Quentin Tarantino.
Reservoir Dogs turns into Pulp Fiction which begat Jackie Brown.
Bravo! How about Billy Bob Thorton? Sling Blade becomes The Man Who
Wasn't There which turns into Monster's Ball. Wow, fascinating! And
there's Josh Hartnett: Pearl Harbor turns into Black Hawk Down which
turns into 40 Days and 40 Nights. Whoa! Something ain't right.
Sure, the guy had a decent parts in The Virgin Suicides and
Halloween H20 when he was just another brooding wanna-be WB teen, but
with Pearl Harbor (regardless of what you might think of the actual
movie - do I hear a chorus of jeers?), little Joshie went from
supporting player to full-tilt heartthrob, thanks to five or six
hundred Michael Bay edit swipes. (I know a woman who tried to convince
her friends to give her the nickname "Kiss Me Josh
Hartnett," no kidding.) As Hartnett fans will tell you, with the
saccharine aw-shucks bumpkinisms of Pearl Harbor, little man Josh then
went on to the boom-boom-crackle monotony of the heinously overrated
Black Hawk Down and the girls continued to swoon. And somehow, now we
have Michael Lehmann's 40 Days and 40 Nights? As mere cinema,
40 Days is limp as a wet noodle, a sex comedy about the restraint and
(God help us) gentleman's ethic that is, in today's world of
Temptation Island hot sex, a relic of the past. But instead of being
charming and sexually insightful, the film is helplessly pedantic, a
movie as ridiculously uninspired as it is completely unbelievable.
When the film first dropped earlier this year to tepid box office
response, critics (but not, mind you, Internet DVD writers) joked that
while Sunset Strip 20-year-olds may be getting their rocks off every
weekend, most twentysomethings would lie, cheat and steal to only have
to wait 40 days and 40 nights in between sexual encounters. ("If
only I had to wait two months between girlfriends...") Any truth
to this aside, what this movie really lacks is an empathetic center:
Wah, wah, wah, Josh isn't knockin' boots because he wants to be a
better man. What a saint, boo-freakin'-hoo.
Michael
Lehmann (Heathers) could have made something truly powerful and
indicative of our times with this kind of hot-button subject matter,
but with somebody as poochy and huggable as Hartnett leading the
circus, this is a film without a sassy center. In Heathers, still one
of the greatest teen comedies of the 80s, Lehmann offers us a Winona
that is conniving, cruel and downright smutty. Lehmann then played
with this initial attraction by complicating it, making it dangerous
to think such a woman was hot, therefore increasing viewers'
infatuation with her tenfold. But Josh is just a dumb guy with a boner
trying to swat the women away. His roommate has the foul-mouthed
sensibilities of a sailor on leave, but his profanity-laced euphemisms
fall on deaf ears: Theoretically, 40 Days and 40 Nights should work as
a play on the consequences of consensual youthful arousal, bit it ends
up being a dumb movie about a dumb character who thinks he's solving
the issues of love in the world by not masturbating five times a day.
Where's his Nobel Peace Prize? 
Video: How Does The Disc
Look?
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the
transfer here is quite nice. Blacks are strong and supple and contrast
very nice. The super-bright, almost overly-saturated colors suffer
from a bit of bleed during the fantasy sequence, but for the most part
the film sticks with a somewhat downcast color scheme. Detail is
surprisingly above-average with good shadow delineation, and there
isn't much in the way of edginess or compression artifacting to
distract. Pretty good.
Audio: How Does The Disc
Sound?
This disc's 5.1 Digital Surround track is boomy and
well-oiled, but it suffers from many of the sound design pitfalls of
the MTV aesthetic: Music cues are mixed terribly - almost
embarrassingly - loud, and background score almost usurps the
forefront dialogue every time. Sure, separation is well utilized and
dynamic range is just peachy, with spacious and roomy highs and lows,
but it all ends up sounding...bland. Your sound system will get a
workout, that's for sure, but will it be worth it? Eh... 
Also
included are English subtitles and Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
Aside from its
notable teaser trailer (kinda cute), the only other extra we
get is a screen-specific audio commentary by director Michael
Lehmann, Producer Michael London and screenwriter Robert Perez. Like
the movie, it's pretty unimpressive. They talk about the changes made
as the film made its way into production - switching the setting from
Hollywood to San Francisco, adding and/or deleting a handful of scenes
- but it doesn't sound like any of these guys have any emotional
investment at in the film. Pretty standard.
DVD-ROM
Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?
No ROM extras have been included.
Parting
Thoughts
I continue to underestimate teenage girls and
other Hartnett aficionados who just want to see their little boy toy
mug for the camera. If just the sight of the new-beefcake-on-the-block
Hartnett strutting his stuff is enough, then 40 Days and 40 Nights
will work for you just fine. As as DVD, the video transfer is pretty
good, and while there is only one real extra feature, I suppose it's
better than just getting a movie-only edition. Fans should check it
out, all others be warned.
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