With chick-flick stalwarts like Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts and the Sex and the City crew pushing 40, The Sweetest Thing lowers the demographic to the late-20s and stirs in some of that Farrelly Bros/American Pie-style gross-out stuff to liven up the usual man-chasing, clothes-shopping and hug-and-squealsome female bonding. Cameron Diaz plays a party-hearty miss who claims to prefer "Mr Right Now" over "Mr Right". Although she gains most of her laughs by treating various men very badly, the plot still boils down to Diaz scurrying after nice guy Thomas Jane. Diaz and gal pal Christina Applegate endure several humiliations in a public toilet to crash a family wedding so she can cosy up to Thomas. Their friend Selma Blair has bizarre sexual adventures back home with a pick-up who dresses as a cartoon elephant.
Set mostly in San Francisco--an unfortunate city for women who like high heels as much as these heroines do--the film stops every few minutes for strange attempts at musical numbers (the big ensemble piece is called "Your Penis Is So Large") and seems entirely to miss the irony when a golden oldie prompts Diaz to wax nostalgic about the far-off halcyon days of 1994. The leads are appealing enough to get away with characters who are as nasty and shallow as they are cute, but director Roger Kumble too often mistakes outrageous for inventive.
On the DVD: The Sweetest Thing contains one of the oddest commentaries ever recorded, with director Kumble and his cast on helium. This actually offers more laughs than the film, especially when the girls turn on Jason Bateman and give him a hard time for being in Teen Wolf Too. Also included are a selection of chick-flick trailers, storyboard comparisons, two featurettes, a snippetty making-of ("Politically Erect") and a witty spoof about the screenwriter ("A Legend Is Born: A Day in the Life of Nancy M Pimental"). --Kim Newman
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