After his girlfriend dumps him Matt goes through a lot of meaningless sex that makes him feel bad,so in order to give himself time to recover he decides to give up sex and anything to do with sex for Lent.

I liked the idea, but the movie ended up being a disappointment.

Josh Hartnett is pretty bad in this movie. I can't think of any other movies with him, but considering that I know his name he did a few, so he might be a good actor. But this movie really doesn't show it. I wonder if he even knew it was a comedy, because he sure didn't act as if he did.

Actually besides having a more or less original idea for a romantic comedy the movie didn't go too far from it. The joke was pretty much the same all through 90 minutes. And it was also stupid. It was the kind of sentiment I would expect for a teen movie, but the characters in this one were in their 20's, the whole "omg the poor guy can't live without sex" thing is just dumb. And this is what the whole movie was about, exaggerated and annoying.

Also, while I think sex themed comedies can be very funny. Only this one was trying to be romantic, and this is what made her sexual theme fail. Some of the jokes were off, and seemed more vulgar than funny for the genre. Actually the only time I laughed was at the Bagel Boy.

The story was not well thought through. It makes no sense whatsoever to me why Erica was mad at Matt about the whole abstinence thing. It's not like he decided not to have sex ever again in his life, or that it was a personal insult to her or that he was supposed to tell everything about himself on one date only. Silly. Same as the ending. I don't want to spoil, but what happened with Nicole was in no way funny. And it was also pretty unnecessary, one could have done it better without it.

The only good thing really I can say about 40 Days and 40 Nights is the soundtrack, especially the use of Recondita Armonia(from Tosca) performed the wonderful Jussi Bjorling. The rest though is a mess. The scenery is decent, but the editing could have been much tighter and the photography more fluid. Josh Hartnett and Shannon Sossaman are charming to look at, but they are rather awkward and never are believable together. It's not their fault though, they struggled with a flat predictable story, a bad smutty script, uneven pacing and especially shallow characters. What spoilt this movie the most was the ending, which is the most terrible and most insulting ending I've seen in a long time. In conclusion, an awful movie. 1/10 Bethany Cox

I had heard about this film and knew the concept of no sex for the title amount, but I didn't know much else, so I had to try it, from director Michael Lehmann (Heathers, Hudson Hawk). Basically Matt Sullivan (30 Days of Night's Josh Hartnett) broke up with Nicole (Vinessa Shaw) months ago, who is now engaged to someone else, he meanwhile has no problem finding new lovers, but he can't help wanting her back. He also finds himself getting a little depressed with all the sex he is having, so he has the inspiration from a priest to give up sex for 40 days and 40 nights, just like Lent, no sexual acts at all, even kissing or masturbation, to get his perspective he needs. His roommate Ryan (Road Trip's Paulo Costanzo) is not convinced he can do it, and after telling many people he and a couple of others have a huge bet saying he will give up. Unfortunately, for Matt, he may be finding it more difficult when quite a while in, he has the met the girl of his dreams, Erica Sutton (A Knight's Tale's Shannyn Sossamon). Oh, don't worry, she finds out what he's doing, and they do get together, but with no bodily contact whatsoever, a very sexy scene involving a flower says it all. Oh, Matt is also having proposals by many women, getting some pornography, and towards the end of the "lent", seeing things, e.g. women naked in the street, an ocean of breasts, so he is obviously desperate for it to end soon. So it comes to day 40, but he didn't finish properly, unfortunately mean Nicole spoilt it just minutes before midnight, by jerking him off, and it was meant to be Erica after the clock strike. Don't worry, he adds 10 days extra to make it up, and he and Erica finally have their first kiss, and having numerous (at least 40) "sessions", a very happy ending indeed. Also starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as Sam, Glenn Fitzgerald as Chris, Griffin Dunne as Jerry and Adam Trese as John Sullivan. Hartnett proves himself a good comic lead, Sossamon is still beautiful, and you will enjoy her in the flower scene, trust me, a very likable romantic comedy. Good!