Scenes of a Sexual Nature

Scenes of a Sexual Nature boasts an astonishing array of British film talent, including Ewan McGregor, Gina McKee, Sophie Okonedo, Catherine Tate, Polly Walker, Hugh Bonneville, Adrian Lester, Eileen Atkins, and others whose faces will be familiar to Anglophiles. Unfolding in a most leisurely way over one sunny afternoon on the rolling hills of London's bucolic Hampstead Heath, the film serves up seven unconnected stories examining the conundrums of love and sex, featuring a pair of elderly strangers who discover that they were once in love, a couple on a blind date, divorcing parents who seem perfectly happy, and a gay couple contemplating parenthood, among others. The directorial debut of filmmaker Ed Blum—who quipped that this charming indie was produced on “less than Love Actually's catering budget” (the film to which it is inevitably compared)—this is neither as “erotically charged” nor “ludicrously funny” as the back of the DVD box would have us believe, but it is full of delightful performances and pointed observations about human nature. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an audio commentary with director Blum and writer Aschlin Ditta and a “making-of” featurette. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a fine little film.] (M. Johanson)