The Sweetest Thing

The Sweetest Thing is a 2002 American romantic comedy film directed by Roger Kumble and written by Nancy Pimental, who based the characters on herself and friend Kate Walsh.[2] It stars Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair.

This article is about the 2002 film. For the U2 song, see Sweetest Thing. For other uses, see Sweetest Thing (disambiguation).
The Sweetest Thing
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRoger Kumble
Produced byCathy Konrad
Written byNancy Pimental
Starring
Music byEdward Shearmur
CinematographyAnthony B. Richmond
Edited by
Production
company
Konrad Pictures
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • April 12, 2002 (2002-04-12) (United States)
Running time
85 minutes
91 minutes
(unrated)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$ 43 million[1]
Box officeUS$ 68.7 million[1]

Plot

In an opening scene, a group of men are interviewed regarding Christina Walters (Cameron Diaz) who introduce her as a player and a user of men in the swinging singles market. The men include:

  • A neurotic loser who gets a nosebleed when she fails to call him after promising to do so.
  • A man who saw the movie Swingers and is calling her after three days, only to find that she gave him a number for Moviefone.
  • A man whose masculinity comes into question when he attempted to court Christina and was denied claiming her to be a lesbian.
  • A very talkative man who ends up propelling himself off an exercise bike when he starts talking about Christina.

The scene shifts back to the sexist man whose claims of Christina's lesbianism causes an entire crowd of women to attack him with baseball bats and the movie moves along, introducing Christina Walters, a 28-year-old successful interior designer and Courtney Rockcliffe (Christina Applegate) who is a divorce lawyer as they console their friend and roommate Jane (Selma Blair), who had recently broken up with her boyfriend Kevin, by taking her out to a dance club and cancel their plans to stay in for pizza. At the club, Jane feels out of place and Christina grabs a man passing by to set Jane up with. She meets Peter Donahue (Thomas Jane) who confronts Christina for her methods before disappearing for the night. While in the bathroom with Courtney, she calls him by name, leading her to suspect that he got under Christina's skin and she is actually attracted to him which she denies. After running into Peter again, Christina buys him a drink and they spend time together. He explains that he will be attending a wedding on Saturday, and that he’s at the club with his obnoxious, womanizing brother Roger (Jason Bateman) to celebrate. He invites Christina and Courtney to an after-party at their hotel, but Christina goes home and later regrets not going.

The next day, Christina cannot stop talking about Peter, while Jane deals with an embarrassing "cleanup" from her fun with the guy she met the night before. In the unedited version, Jane returns to the lunch and the women talk about always complimenting men for the sizes of their penises, eventually breaking out into a restaurant-wide "Penis Song". Courtney arranges for Christina and herself to travel to Somerset, where Peter's brother's wedding is to take place, and they meet Jane's boyfriend. As a recurring gag, they indicate that he is well endowed, causing misery and enjoyment from Jane. After they leave in Courtney's Saab 9-5, Christina and Courtney go on a series of misadventures including an exploding toilet, a glory hole discovery, and a motorcyclist who is led to believe Christina is giving Courtney oral sex. Meanwhile, Jane encounters her boyfriend at her retail job and is nearly caught having sex with him in the changing rooms. When Christina and Courtney finally get to Somerset, they visit a store to replace their wet and ruined clothing, only to come out in extremely gaudy, indiscreet outfits. Christina begins having second thoughts, but a series of coincidences occasions a change of heart, and they go to Peter's brother's wedding. Arriving, they discover that it is Peter, not Roger who is getting married, and the pair nearly ruin the ceremonies in their attempts to escape. Peter and his fiancée then decide that they do not want to marry each other and they call off the wedding (much to her father's chagrin) while Christina returns home and back to a newly unfulfilled life of being single again. Later, Peter finds Christina's address in the log at the store they bought their clothing in and tracks her down. Christina, determined not to fear the commitment, kisses Peter and then walks away disappointed.

Sometime later, Courtney is dating a doctor and is clearly very attracted to him, and Peter is interviewed like the men at the beginning of the film, retelling his version of the events calling her a bitch and a player, but ultimately revealing that he and Christina are together, having gotten married and are living very happily with Jane and Courtney and Roger as well. Whether they all live together is left ambiguous.

Cast

Home media

The film was released on DVD and VHS on August 20, 2002.[3]

Reception

On its opening weekend, it earned US$9,430,667 on 2,670 screens, ranking #3 behind Changing Lanes and Panic Room. It eventually grossed US$68,696,770 worldwide.[1]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 26% based on 107 reviews with the consensus: "A collection of hit-or-miss gags tied together by a thin plot".[4] On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 32 out of 100, based on 30 critics.[5] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade C+ on scale of A to F.[6]

It was among Ebert & Roeper's "Worst of 2002", in the category "Big Stars in Big Bombs".[7]

References
  1. "The Sweetest Thing". Box Office Mojo.
  2. "Kate Walsh: Five Fun Facts". people.com. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
  3. Topel, Fred (July 5, 2002). "Sweetest Is a Sweeter Deal With Extras". hive4media.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2002. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  4. Thing The Sweetest Thing at Rotten Tomatoes
  5. The Sweetest Thing at Metacritic
  6. "Cinemascore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  7. "Ebert & Roeper, The Worst of 2002". Web.archive.org. 2003-05-25. Archived from the original on May 25, 2003. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
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