Eye candy can’t save ’30 Beats’

By STEPHEN HOLDEN
NEW YORK TIMES

I can think of any number of less pleasant ways to while away 88 minutes than to watch the attractive actors in Alexis Lloyd’s “30 Beats” couple and uncouple during a summer heat wave in New York. Pretty bodies are fun to look at, especially when the people you are ogling can’t catch you doing it.

But beyond its eye candy, this wisp of a movie, inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s play “La Ronde,” offers only hints of the complicated personalities behind the characters’ sleek, well-toned surfaces. The actual sex is left to the imagination.

An erotic tone poem to contemporary New York that observes the mating rituals of the youngish and the semi-hip, “30 Beats” jumps around Manhattan, which is filmed to convey an aura of mystery. It presents a teasing vision of this borough as a guilt-free arena of infinite opportunity for singles with the looks and enough time and money to play.

The circular chain of connections begins with the encounter of the virginal Julie (Condola Rashad), who presents herself to Adam (Justin Kirk), a former teacher, and bluntly asks him to deflower her. Their meeting involves a red string kabbalah bracelet with possibly mystical power that seemingly renders Adam, a champion womanizer, sexually dysfunctional.

He is so distressed that he consults Erika (Jennifer Tilly), a psychic who cures him and then seduces him. No sooner has he left her lair than her occasional boyfriend, a bike messenger named Diego (Jason Day), comes calling. Erika has an elaborate set of rules to keep things hot but casual between them. When Diego confesses that he fancies himself in love with Laura (Paz de la Huerta), a woman he has been discreetly stalking, Erika offers friendly advice.

Laura, who has withdrawn from sex because of her embarrassment over a scar on her chest after heart surgery, is erotically reawakened by her alarmingly bossy young chiropractor, Matt (Lee Pace). Having finished with Laura, he arrives at the loft of his free-spirited girlfriend, Kim (Vahina Giocante), and is upset to discover she has just had a lesbian fling.