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'Trainwreck' Isn't Afraid Of Its Subject

Trainwreck starts out with a lengthy scene of two people having sex, the man with deep emotion and the woman with such concern over technique that her continual instructions drain the situation of any satisfaction for either one of them. It later has a scene emphasizing why people do not sleep together face-to-face. It is a love-vs.-sex movie that is not shy about facing the facts of its theme.

Amy Schumer, who wrote the screenplay and stars, is not a classically beautiful woman, but doesn't make a big point of that. She has a lot of expression in her face and a pleasing personality, and that's enough. In fact, everybody in Trainwreck is attractive enough, and Schumer has nothing to say to any of them except that if you want conventional commitments, you can't be promiscuous. You are welcome to go either way, but you can't have both.

Trainwreck is not an exploitation, but it uses the images and words that it needs to use, and with malice toward none. It is full of warm character comedy, well written and acted, thoroughly enjoyable adult entertainment that is being sold as if it were a potty-mouthed shockfest-- the only movie I can think of that is supposedly R-rated for "obscenity," a term it hardly deserves. It's consistently funny, except perhaps for the dip into drama toward the end that almost all love stories suffer from.

Trainwreck is more like 500 Days of Summer than Bridesmaids, and from me, that's a compliment.