The Oh in Ohio

The Oh in Ohio (Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Danny DiVito) — Cleveland is the setting for this PG-13 rated erotic movie (figure that out) about a frigid professional woman and her frustrated biology teacher husband. Both go on a journey of self-discovery — her with a machine and him with a high school knock-out — that results in each becoming a better person … if not with each other. Danny DiVito is making a career as a second banana who single-handedly makes movies work as he plays offbeat, but engaging, characters. As Wayne the Pool Guy, the rich owner of a swimming pool company, he ultimately has the answer to Posey’s problem … and it has everything to do with swimming and nothing to do with the movie. Oh well. Rudd reminded me of the Matthew Broderick teacher/character in Election and may have pulled it off better. This is a comedy that the more than 2,000 women we saw it with at the Maui Film Festival seemed to love, but it grew tedious and meandering after the first hour. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but it will appeal to the art-house crowd that likes offbeat sex comedies without onscreen sex.