--- title: "40 Days and 40 Nights" year: 2002 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/40-days-and-40-nights" fi1m_id: "40-days-and-40-nights" imdb_id: "tt0243736" tmdb_id: 2752 wikidata_id: "Q232219" fi1m_score: 47 critics_score: 50 critics_reviews: 13 published: "2026-10-04T22:53:42.291408+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T22:53:42.762748+00:00" region: "EC" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002) Directed by Michael Lehmann · 1h 34m · Comedy, Romance ## Identity 40 Days and 40 Nights - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/40-days-and-40-nights - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** 40-days-and-40-nights - **IMDb ID:** tt0243736 - **TMDB ID:** 2752 - **Wikidata ID:** Q232219 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243736/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/2752, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q232219 **Fi1m score: 47** · Critics 50 from 13 reviews *In a sentence:* Forty days without sex, ninety-four minutes without a second idea > Rob Perez’s premise is a good one and Michael Lehmann gets a bright, sly performance out of Shannyn Sossamon, but Josh Hartnett plays farce as if it hurt, and the jokes run out before Easter. Mixed, and the late scenes do it no favours. ## Synopsis San Francisco. Matt (Josh Hartnett), a web designer, has been dumped by Nicole (Vinessa Shaw) and cannot get over her; every attempt to move on with someone new ends with him staring at a crack opening across the bedroom ceiling. After confessing all to his brother John (Adam Trese), a trainee priest, he swears off sex for Lent: forty days, no kissing, no touching, nothing at all. His flatmate Ryan (Paulo Costanzo) tells the office, where the staff open an online book on how long he will last, and his colleague Sam (Maggie Gyllenhaal) takes a keen interest in the odds. Then Matt meets Erica (Shannyn Sossamon) in a launderette, and the forty days start to look a great deal longer. ## Review Michael Lehmann’s *40 Days and 40 Nights* has one idea, and it is a decent one. Rob Perez’s script gives Matt (Josh Hartnett), a San Francisco web designer, a broken heart and a remedy: he will give up sex for Lent, all of it, and see whether he feels better. The film states this in its first quarter of an hour, which is about right, and then has the rest of its 94 minutes to fill. It fills roughly half of them. Shannyn Sossamon is the reason the romance works at all. Her Erica meets Matt over a washing machine and treats him, correctly, as a slightly odd man who needs watching. She plays everything a beat slower than the people around her, and the film calms down whenever she is on screen. The best scene is a quiet one in his flat in which Matt, forbidden to touch her, uses a single flower instead, and nobody takes anything off. Elliot Davis lights it low and warm, Rolfe Kent keeps the music to almost nothing, and for four or five minutes the film is tender and funny at the same time. We were moved, a little, and surprised to be. The trouble is Hartnett. He is a brooder by instrument, good at standing in doorways looking troubled, and farce asks him to run, twitch, sweat and shout. He does all of it as if under instruction. The running gag, that celibacy makes him see bare breasts wherever he looks, in the street and across the office, needs a man who can do panic with his face, and Hartnett’s face does one thing. Most critics have said he is miscast and we agree, though we would put the blame higher up. Lehmann made [*Heathers*](https://film.one/film/heathers) in 1988 and knew exactly what to do with a cold lead; here he has cast one in a part written for a warm one. The office is where the film gets its laughs, and most of them belong to the women. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Sam follows the sweepstake with the air of someone who has already spent the winnings, and she gets more out of a raised eyebrow than Paulo Costanzo gets out of a whole speech. Costanzo’s Ryan, the flatmate who cannot stop talking about sex, is written loud and played louder, and we had tired of him by his third scene. Griffin Dunne’s boss Jerry Anderson wanders in for a couple of good lines and wanders out. Vinessa Shaw has the thankless job of being the ex, and the script gives her nothing to do but come back. Elliot Davis shoots San Francisco in clean, bright daylight, white walls and blue sky, and Sharon Seymour’s dot-com office, exposed brick and half-empty desks, is the most convincing thing in the film; you believe people are paid to sit in it and do little. Jill M. Ohanneson puts Erica in jumble-sale cardigans and everyone else in clothes from the same catalogue, which is a small, correct joke. Nicholas C. Smith cuts briskly when the film needs it and mercilessly when it does not; the fantasy sequences are chopped as fast as a trailer, and Lehmann’s crash zooms onto every reaction are what a director reaches for when he does not trust the line. The last twenty minutes take a turn we will not describe, except to say that the film pays off its premise with a scene it plainly thinks is funny and we found ugly, and then asks us to forgive everyone involved inside about ninety seconds. We sat through it feeling faintly sick, then cross, because a comedy about a man learning to want less had just shown it did not believe its own idea. The 15 certificate is there for the jokes, not for that scene, which is the wrong way round. Against the teen sex comedies of its moment it is gentler and better dressed. Against the romantic comedy proper it is thin: one idea, one good scene with a flower, and a lead who looks as though he would rather be somewhere darker. If sunshine, San Francisco and Sossamon are enough for an evening, there are worse ways to spend 94 minutes, and most of them are longer. Watch it at home, where it is easier to step out when the ending arrives, and we would. *Fi1m score 47, published 4 October 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics treat this as a slight, one-joke sex farce and do not pretend otherwise. The warmer reviews find more in it than the premise promises: a comedy that is sweeter and less crude than most teen fare, with a sly undertow about love and self-knowledge. Praise clusters on Shannyn Sossamon, repeatedly called the film’s most winning presence, and on an amiable supporting cast. Several note that the premise is neat even where the gags are hit and miss. The spread is wide, running from mild approval to outright dismissal, and the division is largely over Josh Hartnett. The Guardian and Eye for Film judge him miscast and bland; Slant, by contrast, praises his chemistry with Sossamon, which Total Film says is missing altogether. The harshest reviews come from British outlets, which find the farce prolonged, the humour forced and the climax misjudged. Three reviews are only partly readable, so their verdicts rest on inference. ## Straight answers **Is 40 Days and 40 Nights worth watching?** *40 Days and 40 Nights* is a mixed romantic comedy, worth an evening only if sunshine, San Francisco and Shannyn Sossamon are enough for you, and we scored it 47. Rob Perez's premise is good and Sossamon is bright and sly in it, but Josh Hartnett plays farce as if it hurt, and the jokes run out well before the ending, which we found ugly. **How long is 40 Days and 40 Nights, and what is it rated?** *40 Days and 40 Nights* runs 1h 34m. It is a comedy and romance film. **Where can I watch 40 Days and 40 Nights in Ecuador?** *40 Days and 40 Nights* is not on any streaming or rental service in Ecuador at the moment. It is available in 16 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is 40 Days and 40 Nights, and is it suitable for children?** *40 Days and 40 Nights* is not violent or frightening at all; it is a sex comedy, and its 15 certificate is for constant sexual jokes, nudity and talk, not for anything scary. It is not for children, and we would not call it suitable for younger teenagers either. The late scenes are the part most likely to leave an adult uncomfortable, and not in the way the film intends. **What should I watch after 40 Days and 40 Nights?** After *40 Days and 40 Nights*, try [*Heathers*](https://film.one/film/heathers) (1988, Fi1m 80): Lehmann when he had teeth; a high-school comedy that is cruel and means it. Then [*The 40-Year-Old Virgin*](https://film.one/film/the-40-year-old-virgin) (2005, Fi1m 79): The same subject taken the other way round, with jokes that keep arriving; and [*The Apartment*](https://film.one/film/the-apartment) (1960, Fi1m 91): Office, lonely man, woman worth waiting for; Wilder shows how it is done. ### Reviews we read (13) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (75/100, inferred): Thomas finds the comedy frothy but more substantial than it first appears, with an engaging and insightful story. He praises its sly subtext about sex, love, and self-discovery. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-mar-01-et-thomas1-story.html) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (65/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the comedy funny, sexy, and silly, but ultimately a disposable farce. He praises Shannyn Sossamon as especially winning, while faulting the hit-and-miss gags and the film’s failure to deepen its themes. [Read](https://variety.com/2002/film/reviews/40-days-and-40-nights-1200551209/) - **Screen Daily**, Emanuel Levy (64/100, inferred): The review text is behind a paywall, so its verdict is unavailable. The visible page does not reveal what the critic singled out for praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/40-days-and-40-nights/408534.article) - **The New Yorker**, David Denby (64/100, inferred): The issue lists a review covering “40 Days and 40 Nights” alongside “We Were Soldiers,” but the review’s verdict is not visible. The accessible page does not reveal what Denby praises or criticizes. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/03/11) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page is identified as a film review, but its text is unavailable, so the critic’s verdict cannot be verified. The headline suggests abstinence is a focus, but offers no reliable evidence of what the critic praised or criticized. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/01/movies/film-review-mastering-the-domain-of-abstinence.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (2.5/4): Gonzalez finds the film unexpectedly sweet despite its one-joke premise and fixation on sex. He praises the chemistry between Josh Hartnett and Shannyn Sossamon, while calling Paul Costanzo the weakest link. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/40-days-and-40-nights/) - **Radio Times**, Lorien Haynes (3/5): Haynes finds the comedy cute and less crude than many teen-oriented films. She singles out its comparatively gentle treatment of celibacy for praise. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-11i580/40-days-and-40-nights/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (2/4): Ebert gives the film a negative verdict. He faults its comedy for relying on a thin premise and forced humor. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/40-days-and-40-nights-2002) - **Total Film**, Total Film (2/5): The review finds the comedy disappointingly average, caught between raunchy farce and thoughtful romance. It praises the neat premise and supporting cast, but says the attractive leads lack chemistry. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/40-days-and-40-nights-review/) - **Empire**, Mark Dinning (35/100, inferred): Dinning finds the comedy a neat subversion of the teen genre but ultimately humdrum. He praises the amiable cast and sharp observations, while criticizing Hartnett’s casting and the badly misjudged climax. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/40-days-40-nights-review/) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (30/100, inferred): Tobias finds the comedy predictable and shallow about relationships, despite its smoother style than a typical teen comedy. He singles out Josh Hartnett’s strained manic performance and the film’s smutty jokes as major weaknesses. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/40-days-and-40-nights-1798195460) - **The Guardian**, Xan Brooks (20/100, inferred): Brooks finds the film an agonisingly prolonged sex farce and judges Hartnett hopelessly miscast. He especially criticizes Lehmann’s crass zooms and the characters’ relentless overacting. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,724807,00.html) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (10/100, inferred): The critic dismisses the film as unfunny and dull. He particularly criticizes Josh Hartnett’s bland central performance, saying the film only comes alive when the character is offscreen. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/40-days-40-nights-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Details - **Director:** Michael Lehmann - **Director:** Michael Lehmann - **Writer:** Rob Perez - **Cinematography:** Elliot Davis - **Editor:** Nicholas C. Smith - **Music:** Rolfe Kent - **Production design:** Sharon Seymour - **Costume design:** Jill M. Ohanneson - **Producer:** Tim Bevan, Michael London, Eric Fellner - **Cast:** Josh Hartnett as Matt Sulivan; Shannyn Sossamon as Erica Sutton; Paulo Costanzo as Ryan; Vinessa Shaw as Nicole; Maggie Gyllenhaal as Sam; Adam Trese as John Sullivan; Griffin Dunne as Jerry Anderson; Emmanuelle Vaugier as Susie - **Runtime:** 1h 34m - **First release (Canada):** 1 March 2002 - **Genres:** Comedy, Romance - **Budget:** $17 million - **Box office:** $95 million ## Where to watch in Ecuador Not streaming, renting or buying in Ecuador at the last check. Also available in: BE, BG, CA, CZ, DK, ES, FI, FR, HR, IN, LT, NO, PL, RO, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Heathers* (1988), Fi1m 80: Lehmann when he had teeth; a high-school comedy that is cruel and means it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/heathers.md) - *The 40-Year-Old Virgin* (2005), Fi1m 79: The same subject taken the other way round, with jokes that keep arriving. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-40-year-old-virgin.md) - *Secretary* (2002): Gyllenhaal in the lead, in a stranger and braver film about wanting. - *The Apartment* (1960), Fi1m 91: Office, lonely man, woman worth waiting for; Wilder shows how it is done. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-apartment.md) - *Y Tu Mamá También* (2001), Fi1m 87: Two young men, one summer, and a film that is honest about sex. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/y-tu-mama-tambien.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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