The title Casual Sex may put people off, but it shouldn't. Far from being a movie that is the borderline-porn you'd think accompanies the title, this movie is more about relationships than actually about sex.
Stacy (portrayed by Lea Thompson) and Melissa (portrayed by Victoria Jackson) are two single girls living in Los Angeles with two very different approaches to the subject of sex during the mid to late eighties.
Stacy seems to be the party girl who is a free spirit and very much enjoys life. Throughout the movie (which centers around a trip to a health spa resort) we learn quite a bit more about her. Stacy has jumped through a series of quick relationships, mostly centered around having sex. The sex may be great and wonderful, but as soon as she gets to know what they guy is really like, the relationship falls apart. At one point she confesses that the only way she knows to get close to a guy is by having sex. For her, there is no deep conversations, no meaningful, longing glances, no real romance; just wham-bam.... oops, this was a big mistake... you are the weakest link... goodbye! While this seems like fun to some people, with the advent of AIDS in the mid-eighties, Stacy is forced to take a hard look at her lifestyle.
Melissa is the antithesis of Stacy in that her relationships are few and far between. Where Stacy has confidence, Melissa is self-disparaging. Her relationships, however, have a deeper meaning. We see that when the first person she has sex with (viewed through a series of flashbacks) is someone she is good friends with. Her next relationship nearly results in getting married - something that would have been a mistake, but she was willing to go through with until he backed out.
It is interesting to see these two young women play off of each other throughout their trip to the spa. Stacy has the confidence and manages to land Nick, who is an aerobics instructor at the resort and yearns to be a musician. He is gorgeous, but also somewhat of a buffoon. This is a fact that Stacy misses in her initial assessment of him. Melissa is terribly jealous, as she is feeling the need to just have someone, anyone in her life and is willing to change herself almost to whatever degree necessary to have that.
The one character I truly love in this movie - and who quite honestly makes the whole picture for me - is The Vin Man - Vinny (portrayed by Andrew Dice Clay). For those of you who never "got" his act in the late-eighties, one viewing of this movie will show you just how much of an act it really was. In the beginning he comes off much like the characters he created in his comedy act. Both Stacy and Melissa disparage him on a number of occasions, but in reality, he is more like Stacy than anyone realizes. Vinny is so caught up in appearing to be the macho, confident, chick-magnet that he is hiding his true self.
Most of the comedy comes either as a result of Vinny or at his expense. Clay truly gives a great performance here - the best I've ever seen, even over his live comedy act. As soon as he walks into a scene, you generally feel there are going to be a few laughs out of his presence, though he has quite a bit more depth later on in the film.
All these characters together - with a few great supporting performances by the likes of Mary Gross and Jerry Levine, make a movie that is more about learning about yourself and knowing what you want in life. Stacy needs to figure out if she wants more to life than justCasual Sex. Melissa, though yearning to be like Stacy in the beginning, actually has her own self-realizations by the end. And Vinny... well, his evolution is truly a delight to see.
This is a film that I will eventually be watching with my daughter. It is a great way to spark conversation about sex and the feelings that go along with it. The film conveys that having sex does not equal having a relationship, while also saying that we have to be who we are comfortable with, and not try to be who our friends or anyone else feel we should be.
This film was originally scripted as a stage play in Chicago. As most of the scenes seem to take place in only a very few sets, I can imagine what the play was like very easily. The writers (Wendy Goldman and Judy Toll) hit the nail on the head with so many situations I can remember as I entered my twenties during this time. I would have loved to have seen it on the stage as I imagine it was quite enjoyable.
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