The Opposite Of Sex is a 1998 black comedy starring Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Ivan Sergei and Lisa Kudrow. The main protagonist is Dede Truitt (Ricci), a troublemaking teenage girl who leaves after home after her father dies and moves in with her gay brother (Donovan). After a few weeks she seduces his boyfriend (Sergei) into bed and ends up pregnant. After that, the two of them take off to LA, emptying the brother's bank account along the way.
The Opposite Of Sex provides examples of:
- Angrish - Lucia, ironically one of the most articulate characters in the movie, delves into this when her frustration gets the best of her, with her speech devolving into a string of spat-out obscenities and monosyllables: "Fine! Goddammit! God! Fuck! Shit!"
- Ashes to Crashes: Played with. Dede steals Tom's ashes and uses them to blackmail Bill and Lucia. She later gives them back unharmed, admitting it was low, even for her, to steal them. She even double-bagged them!
- Babies Ever After: Both Dede (and Bill by extension) and Lucia end up with kids.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Played with. The end of the film has Dede preparing to leave the baby with her brother, but cuts away as she insists she won't go back. It's left open either way.
- Beta Couple: Lucia and Carl
- Bi the Way: Matt
- Bitch Alert: In a variation, both Lucia and Dede
- Blondes are Evil: Dede
- Brainless Beauty: Matt is a male example. It's often lampshaded by Dede.
- Brick Joke: Lucia tells Dede she pronounces her name "loo-sha" because of her sisters Marcia and Tricia when her parents actually named her "loo-chee-ah". Later on she gives her name to a credit card company and spells it out for them. After a pause she snaps "yes, I know how my own name is pronounced".
- Bullet Holes and Revelations: Struggle for the gun version was used, including the subsequent fakeout, which is lampshaded after the reveal, with the line "What you thought I'd be the dead one? I'm the fucking narrator guys. Keep up!"
- Chekhov's Gun: Dedee is shown packing a gun, and helpfully informs the audience, "This is foreshadowing. Duh!". Despite the fact that she toys with being an Unreliable Narrator, it does get used later on. And just when you think it's outlived its usefulness, it comes back a second time.
- Christina Ricci: In one of her earliest "adult" roles.
- Deadpan Snarker: Lucia.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Downplayed with Dede. She still remains icy but she does learn a bit about the value of family. It's left open whether or not she goes back to keep her child.
- The Ditz: Matt. When Dede tells him she's late, he assumes she's talking about school.
- Do Wrong, Right: Bill catches a student writing an insulting statement about him on the bathroom wall. He makes the kid correct the grammar, then lets him go.
- Fag Hag: Lucia still hangs out with her deceased brother's boyfriend.
- Flamboyant Gay: Jason. And how.
- Gory Discretion Shot: When the gun is fired in the hotel room. It leaves us in doubt whether Randy or Dede gets shot.
- Hard Drinking Party Girl: Dede is a pretty dark example.
- Karma Houdini: Jason. He gets Bill suspended from his job after cooking up a sexual abuse story and he ends up getting the guy at the end.
- Playing Against Type: Both the female leads. Ricci was known for playing definitely more family-friendly adolescents and Kudrow was known as a certain airhead from New York...
- Straight Gay: Bill.
- No Bisexuals: Lucia certainly has this attitude. When Matt tries to explain he's bisexual, she remarks "I went to a Bar Mitzvah once, that doesn't make me Jewish."
- The Twink: Jason.
- Unreliable Narrator: Dede. She even lets the audience think she dies twice. And berates the viewer for believing her.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Matt
- Would Hit a Girl: Randy gets into a literal fight with Dede in the hotel.
- Especially notable since (bitchy or not), Dede is at least seven months pregnant when it happens.
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