random stars aligning. This included an influx of money at the studio from a new partnership; their recent films had been hits; young comedies like mine were connecting at the time; a few bankable actors in the age range wanted to play the lead; the executive(s) happened to like (or at least think it was commercial) the concept/script; and that the producer was hungry enough that when he hit road blocks, he found other ways to keep moving forward. I can go on, but hope this is enough to illustrate my point: the film was made because of 20 things that had nothing to do with the script." The film was shot primarily in Vancouver, but also featured some San Francisco locations, including Potrero Hill, San Francisco, California. Reception Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 39% based on reviews from 137 critics, with an average rating of 4.90/10. The site's consensus states: "As romantic comedies go, 40 Days and 40 Nights is smutty, sexist, and puerile." On Metacritic the film has a score of 53%, based on reviews from 33 critics. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F. Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. He praised director Michael Lehmann for raising the film above the level of sexual sitcom, through his sympathy for his characters and use of humor to examine human nature. He also credited writer Rob Perez for dialogue about sex with "more complexity and nuance than we expect". Not wanting to reveal too much, Ebert explained he was dissatisfied with the ending, writing, "Nicole's entire participation is offensive and unnecessary, and that there was a sweeter and funnier way to resolve everything." Variety's Todd McCarthy called it "A self-described abstinence comedy that is funny, sexy and silly in equal measure" but notes "had tried to deepen the film’s potentially serious themes as often as they make light of them, they might have come up with something more than the disposable farce at hand." Peter Travers called it "a one-joke sex farce", and complains "Yup, director Michael Lehmann, far from the glory days of "Heathers," has made a movie about a hard-on, in which he relentlessly pounds a flaccid premise." Lou Lumenick of the New York Post called the film "So eyeball-gougingly awful that you're tempted