Review: A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
Prejudice; I admit I have it. It's hard to have high expectations of a movie like A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, which does exactly what you'd expect, but that's not much.
When I first heard about A Good Old Fashioned Orgy I kept confusing it with Cummings Farm, a darkly comic 2009 AFF selection with a very similar plot and plot points; vacation home, old friends, a plan to have group sex. Cummings Farm was retitled All American Orgy for its DVD release, which included some heinously misleading cover art implying it's a sophomoric sex-romp instead of a dark relationship comedy/character study. So I readily admit I wanted to completely dismiss A Good Old Fashioned Orgy as something similar.
But the cast includes Leslie Bibb (the underrated AFF 2010 selection Miss Nobody), and Tyler Labine (Tucker & Dale vs Evil), two actors who've proven they have incredible talent. Coupled with co-filmmaker Peter Huyck having a part in Bob Byington's RSO [Registered Sex Offender], and A Good Old Fashioned Orgy has enough indie cred to make me give the film a chance. I wish it returned the favor.
Unambitious Eric (Jason Sudeikis) is known for throwing epic parties at his father's sprawling summer house in the Hamptons. His core group of friends are his constant companions, a mix of professionals and slackers of varying success. When the house is put on the market, Eric decides to throw the ultimate bacchanal: an orgy. Only not everyone is excited about the prospect, not even his obviously named friend McCrudden (Labine). To complicate matters, pesky realtors keep trying to sell the place out from under him, including the perky Kelly (Bibb).
Writer/director team Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck don't seem to trust themselves or their film to be as risqué as the title suggests. Both worked on Late Show with David Letterman and King of the Hill; their comedic sensibilities seem stuck in public broadcast mode despite their film getting an R rating from the MPAA. None of the humor has any sting of truth and there are no notable consequences for anyone. Very little titillates in A Good Old Fashioned Orgy; most of the nudity has the opposite effect. That's not to say there are no laughs; there are, and one particular early one about body hair suggests the humor may actually get daring. But it doesn't, and relies heavily on contrived and predictable gags.
It's certainly not a problem with the cast themselves. Bibb, Sudeikis and Labine are joined by Martin Starr, Lucy Punch and David Koechner. Even designated letch McCrudden is more tiresome than lascivious. Bibb, whose character is introduced with promise as a sassy stranger during the opening scene, quickly wilts under insubstantial dialogue (and distractingly awkward wardrobe). None of the characters have any depth, and even with the implausible plot, there's no effort to try to make any of them sympathetic or particularly likeable.
Where Cummings Farm dared and occasionally failed, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy doesn't even muster the effort to try. A Good Old Fashioned Orgy shies away from anything daring or provocative, making it simply an old-fashioned conventional -- and forgettable -- comedy.