Great chemistry in key seduction scene redeems the film

Four minutes of top notch, high quality, guilty pleasure material!


Yes, this movie was average, cliched, and predictable in many ways, but one scene totally redeems all of its faults for me (along with two hilarious lines). I freely admit it (but only to strangers on the internet). Bored forty-something women--take note!

Ryan was amazing in the intense and very believable seduction scene--the quality of his acting was noticeably superior in this scene (perhaps he wasn't acting?). I think that his background in dance and martial arts came into play, along with his gorgeous, fit body. Visually, he was beautiful, his movements were so fluid, tender, yet manly, and aimed to please, the delivery and tone of his voice made cliched dialogue seem heartfelt and believable-- basically, all of these elements came together, making him one smooth operator and extremely convincing (as an actor and as a character). I totally understand why Claire could not resist him in that moment. I don't think I ever quite understood how someone could go from "no way" to "wow, ok" in just a few minutes until I saw this scene, so bravo--I learned something about real life from a cheesy movie thanks to the excellent directing and acting.

Jennifer's reactions were also great in this scene--she went through such a wide range of emotions and hit all of the notes perfectly. I'm the same age as her character and a high school teacher and thought that she was very believable in terms of freaking out about his age, her reputation, etc. I actually admired her acting throughout the film. In all of the key moments, she was very believable to me. I think that her beauty, annoyingly perfect body, off screen reputation/diva antics cause her to not be taken seriously and color the way she's evaluated, but I think that, objectively, she's very talented.

I'm not well-versed in this part of film-making, but, obviously, the lighting, cinematography, editing, sound, etc. also played a key role in making everything come together for the scene. And, of course, the directing of the scene probably made a huge difference. These are "awkward" (or so I'm told) scenes, the camera was practically on top of them, and yet these four minutes were pretty magical in terms of movie making. (I read somewhere that Ryan's dad stood up in the audience at this point in the movie and yelled something like, "That's my boy!" when he saw it).

Oh, and listen for the two best lines involving "cookies" (ad-libbed) and the effects of the week-end storm. Laugh out loud funny.