Sleeping With Other People

Although one might reasonably hope that independently-made romantic comedies would improve on their big-studio counterparts, filmmaker Leslye Headland's Sleeping With Other People certainly doesn't. In fact, her script is based on the standard clichéd rom-com premise: Jake (Jason Sudeikis) and Lainey (Alison Brie) are obviously meant to be together, but they decide to remain “just friends”…until the final reel, when they belatedly realize what the audience already knew 90 minutes earlier: they can't live without each other. Before that conclusion, of course, both develop relationships with others—in Lainey's case, a caddish married doctor; for Jake, a co-worker and single mom—who naturally aren't compatible and they predictably end badly. Along for the ride are the inevitable wisecracking best friends who serve as the constant snark chorus. Sudeikis and Brie are personable and attractive leads, but they're undercut by a script featuring reams of hyper-articulate dialogue that smacks more of the word processor than real life. Not a necessary purchase. (F. Swietek)