The Intimacy Experiment

A rabbi and a porn star turned sex educator walk into a classroom: it sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s the intriguing basis for the mostly charming latest from Danan (The Roommate). When Naomi Grant and Ethan Cohen cross paths at a teaching conference, Ethan proposes they work together on a seminar in modern intimacy at his synagogue. To a young rabbi with a shrinking (and aging) congregation, Naomi’s charisma and expertise look like a godsend to entice new members. To Naomi, who associates organized religion with shame, Rabbi Ethan’s model looks, sweet demeanor, and commitment to his faith spell danger. So though she’s been searching for an opportunity to put her master’s in social psychology to use, her initial answer is no. Though Naomi and Ethan eventually make an excellent team, external resistance and internal conflicts continually get in the way, and some of the conflict doesn’t entirely gel. Naomi’s bravado masks lingering hurts over being shamed for her sexuality as a teen, and the logic of how that formative experience led to Naomi’s career in adult entertainment veers on cliched rather than convincing. Still the original setup and endearing characters largely make up for the flaws of this slow-burning romance. Agent: Jessica Watterson, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Apr.)