Doug Martin (Nick Jonas) is sidetracked by an alluring neighbour, Lena (Isabel Lucas), during a summertime escape.  Her husband (Dermot Mulroney) is too unpredictable for comfort, which leads Lena to warm up next to her unassuming and equally randy neighbour.  The pair go to great lengths to protect their affair, even if that means resorting to crime.

There’s a core audience for literary erotica with a premise like that – authors keep writing them for somebody.  When similar fare makes the transition to film, it’s a wild variant for filmmakers (Adore, The Boy Next Door).  Lately, these films are rarely deserving of legit merit.  However if these films pack some trashy giggles and maintain our interest over a breezy runtime, they’ll receive a slight passing grade from viewers knowing exactly what they signed up for.

That’s the exact case with Elizabeth Allen’s Careful What You Wish For.  I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the movie because of its frequent and sloppy continuity errors, Chris Frisina’s repetitive script, and Jonas’ sheepish turn as teenage scholar-slash-walking-sex scandal Doug Martin.  Those flaws aside, there’s enough unintentional eccentricities and guilty pleasures in the film to sucker the movie goer into sticking around.

We get long shots of Isabel Lucas’ bare bottom, Nick Jonas’ abs, and not a care is given behind-the-scenes – everyone knows exactly what they’re making for that specific audience.  After a while though, as much as we enjoy giggling at the gratuitousness, the constant sex between Doug and Lena has the film running in circles as it waits for increased conflict.  Luckily, when the stakes are raised, we’re reeled in and shocked by a last-minute curveball in the film’s mystique.

Unfortunately, that twist is the only honest surprise in Careful What You Wish For.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie