JOE GANTZ Director Joe Gantz explores the world of swinging couples in his documentary "Sex With Strangers."

The swing set

The Gantz brothers' documentary
is a disturbing probe into
human relationships

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By Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.com

"It's recreation -- it's like somebody else went bowling," says a half-naked, nicotine-shriveled swinger in Joe and Harry Gantz's documentary "Sex With Strangers," about a trio of "committed" couples who nevertheless enjoy having, yes, sex with strangers.

But our bathrobe-clad philosopher's only half right, for swinging is (at least according to its adherents in this film) both as natural as any other hobby and a deliberately exotic affront to monogamy-loving America. Whatever your opinion of the Gantz brothers' movie -- some will find it too graphic, others too stagy to possibly be real -- no amount of carping can obscure the fact that "Sex With Strangers" is a terrifically disturbing meditation on human relationships and the demands we place on them these days -- that they be both adventurous and safe, at once as exciting as a thrill ride and as predictable as a merry-go-round.

Lest you think that the swinging lifestyle effectively sidesteps these issues, consider Calvin and Sara, two randy young Oregonians who decide to share their bed with Julie (as in "Jules et Jim"?) Perhaps these Northwest burnouts envisioned a Courtney-and-Kurt fantasy cruise; nevertheless, no sooner have they ditched their clothes and societal conventions than a homely, oddly familiar core is revealed.

DENNIS ODA / DODA@ STARBULLETIN.COM Joe Gantz, co-creator of the HBO series "Taxicab Confessions," is in Honolulu with his family for the opening of his documentary about partner-swapping couples. He'll speak about his work after tonight's screenings at Restaurant Row.

Sara, we learn, has agreed to this ménage in order to demonstrate her commitment to Calvin, who has demanded openness as a condition of their relationship. Calvin, meanwhile, persists in using words like "loyalty" and "trust" when conversing with Julie, despite their obvious absurdity in this context. And Julie, who professes to dislike Sara intensely, nevertheless has sex with her as a way of proving her big-heartedness to Calvin, who subsequently rants about feeling excluded.

In other words, the romantic ideal of finding The One is very much a presence here, an ideal that refuses to disappear even as the couples traipse from sex clubs to "home parties" to discos in search of fresh meat. It's a mindset reminiscent of the hypocrisy soap operas traffic in, only without the blunt sexual demands.

"The swinging world is very conservative, very middle-of-the-road," said Joe Gantz, who also co-created HBO's Emmy-winning "Taxicab Confessions" series with his brother Harry. Joe is in town for the "Sex With Strangers" premiere at Wallace Restaurant Row.

"Many swingers have been in long-term relationships and they want to stay in the relationship, but they want to have sex with other people. But it's not like they have piercings and tattoos and pink hair and lifestyles on the edge. These are people who live in middle-class neighborhoods and lead very traditional lives."

Like, say, Shannon and Gerard, a Mississippi couple who now own a plumbing business (they lost their previous jobs once word of their hobby got out). It was a marriage counselor who apparently suggested they try swinging, and one of "Sex With Strangers'" most intriguing sequences occurs when Shannon "comes out" to her mom about their Friday night romps. (Mom, by the way, is very understanding, having had "problems with monogamy" herself.)

As original as anything you've ever seen in a documentary, yet as clichéd as all the "Mom, I'm gay" episodes on Oprah, Jerry or Sally, the scene, like much of "Sex With Strangers," is wonderfully economical, capturing a subculture's novelty and boring familiarity in an instant.

"She's now a Mormon," said Gantz of Shannon's post-documentary odyssey. "She said at the time, 'I think I should give up swinging but I don't really want to.' But then she got pregnant again" -- the couple already had a 2-year-old -- "and decided she was going to give it up. And around that time these Mormons came to the door and now they're Mormons. But they're not apologetic about what happened. They said it was the right thing for them at the time."

The third couple profiled, James and Theresa, are no mere dabblers. A husband and wife who met in the hospital where they once worked, they've been swinging for six years, cruising dance clubs for the similarly open-minded. Thirtysomething Theresa is the newly enhanced bait, having just received breast implants to "put me back into the game again," while James often sits in wait in the couple's motor home, which is helpfully positioned in the club's parking lot.

(Theresa had no trouble procuring willing subjects, said Gantz, but that didn't make the filmmakers' job any easier. "They go into a club and say, 'Would you like to go with us? We've got our mobile home in the parking lot.' And then they say, 'By the way, we have a documentary crew following our lives. Is that OK?' As you can imagine, 9 out of 10 would say no.")

But once in a while someone would say yes, and the Gantz brothers (who followed these couples for a year) would send two cameramen and a sound guy into the RV to capture the action, including the pre- and post-game.

"Harry or myself is usually in a van and we can get a microwave TV feed so I can see both cameras and talk in the cameraman's ear," he said of the dicey circumstances in which documentaries like this are shot. "With the sound person, whenever possible you like to have them outside the room. But it's not always possible when there's no clothes on." No place to put the body mics, you see.

The images the filmmakers captured are stark, sometimes shocking and frequently ugly (e.g., when multitudes of sagging, middle-aged bodies are engaged in a pathetic group grope). But the queasiness induced by "Sex With Strangers" effectively immunizes the film against any claims that it might be pornographic, allowing it to play out as a cinematic elegy of sorts -- and one composed not merely for swinging's proponents but its detractors too. A tale of boredom and its feeble antidotes, of the delights and built-in limitations of sexual desire, it's a documentary to unsettle even the unswung.

"Sex With Strangers" Not Rated Playing at the Art House at Wallace Restaurant Row (filmmaker Joe Gantz will speak after tonight's screenings)

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