100 MILE RULE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
So men, when you take those business trips away from home, do beautiful blondes who look like Maria Bello (COYOTE UGLY) come up and invite you over to their place? (Girls offering paid "dates" do not count.) Yeah, I know, it hasn't happened to me either, but it does to Bobby (Jake Weber), a sixty-thousand-dollar-a-year salesman who is attending a sales seminar with Jerry (David Thornton), his co-worker, and Howard (Michael McKean, BEST IN SHOW), their sales manager.
Based on a script by Drew Pillsbury that has more depth than it originally appears to have, Brent Huff's 100 MILE RULE starts off as a breezy romantic comedy. Although all three of the salesmen are married, they take their vows with differing degrees of seriousness. Most faithful of all is Bobby. He has a good marriage to Katherine (Shawn Huff), who is back in rainy Detroit with their two kids as he listens to one boring lecture after another in sunny California. She is a willing wife who even attempts the phone sex with him that he has been asking for. When she calls, however, he is, well, busy, which makes for one of the film's funniest scenes.
When we meet the guys, Jerry is explaining the "100 mile rule" to Bobby. "Whatever happens when you're 100 miles from home doesn't count," Jerry explains to the disbelieving Bobby. Bobby likes Jerry, but he finds this potbellied, would-be ladies' man to be something of a joke.
When Monica (Bello), a cocktail waitress at a bar in their hotel, comes on to Bobby, he explains how he is married and isn't interested in fooling around. Things take some interesting twists and turns after that initial encounter. The movie is always quite funny and sometimes even a bit sinister.
100 MILE RULE runs 1:38. It is not rated but would be an R for sex, violence, language and drug usage and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film was shown recently as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival (www.Cinequest.org), which ran February 27 to March 9, 2003.
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