Summary: Three-Quarters Through Sammy And Rosie Get Laid

Three-quarters through Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, a film written by Hanif Kureishi which features very little music, three interracial couples have sex as bizarrely-dressed characters that have not previously been seen in the film saunter onto the screen and burst into song; our class, when viewing this, burst into giggles. The musical number is odd and unexpected, negates the uncomfortability of the three simultaneous sex scenes interspersed throughout, and makes the entirety of the scene joyous and lighthearted, even silly, despite the tempestuous preceding scenes and film itself. The song is “My Girl,” the motown hit written by Smokey Robinson about his wife for The Temptations which blissfully recounts the bliss the singer’s “girl” brings

him, despite however dreary his life may be. The song, when paired with these three unusual couples, seemingly describes the way in which their fornication aids these people in forgetting the troubles of their life and problem-ridden London under Margaret Thatcher’s rule. Yet, this is ironic when knowing these people’s backgrounds: the song, in fact, draws attention to these characters’ incapability to create an emotional bond like the one described in “My Girl” or process their respective hardships and experience happiness despite them, which leads them to seek out casual sex for a momentary escape. This has correlations to the many ways which various characters seek out refuge from their disappointing lives, often unsuccessfully.
The song is joyful, but the singers are not. The singers wear ridiculous costumes, which may seem fun and quirky, but they wear them out of necessity: they are the only clothes they can find as homeless people affected by England’s harsh politics. Vagrants dance around the singers in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic world with fires blazing everywhere and families living amongst garbage, but which is actually present-day (at the time of the film) England under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The singers do not smile. The audience does not know these characters, but they do not appear to have girlfriends to be singing about or anything bringing them joy: instead, the message is concerning our three couples: Sammy and Anna, Rosie and Danny/Victoria, and Rafi and Alice, but they are not that happy either. The song appears to be sincere and applicable to them because they, indeed, are supposedly much happier in a dark time due to their coupling, but sex is not synonymous with coupling. In fact, the film’s main couple, Sammy and Rosie, are having sex with others in this scene, and throughout the film. Sammy would not refer to Anna as “his girl,” nor would any of the respective pairings be regarded in this way. In a relationship, and in the song, the partner is the one bringing joy and making the world better even when it seems bad. With sex, it is merely the orgasm which brings joy, but moreso relief, in a negative world. This is just a momentary improvement that must be sought after again and again, which is what lead to Sammy and Rosie’s open relationship and casual sex. The fleeting, momentary nature of the happiness that sex brings a person is emphasized in the scene immediately before the outburst into song: Anna yells at Sammy and declares, “For you, pursuing women is like hang-gliding. They’re a challenge, something to be overcome. It’s fucking outta date, man! It’s about time you learned how to love someone!” (69.246) This quote highlights the way in which Sammy goes from woman to woman to feel some kind of satisfaction, but it also accentuates that even though Sammy and Anna were just violently arguing, they have sex soon afterward because sex is sought after to fix problems that are far deeper than dissatisfaction, and sex simply cannot solve them.
“My Girl” is about a relationship, but not about sex: it is about the emotional connection of a relationship.

With Sammy and Rosie’s “freedom with commitment” agreement, it is implied they have sex with others, but the emotional connection remains between them, as they remain a couple. However, it seems as if the emotional connection has died, and now they are merely living together, though Sammy longs for a committed relationship once again with Rosie, perhaps “commitment with freedom” as their agreement instead. Rosie has casual sex with many different partners, and although Sammy has had many different partners, he is in some form of a relationship with his current fling, Anna. They see each other regularly and he treats her like a normal girlfriend. Initially, this seems like an adulterous relationship betraying Rosie and his marriage, but ultimately, (and ironically) it is evidence of his love of relationships, dedication, commitment, and emotional connection, and, therefore, his yearning for this with

Rosie.
Both Sammy and Rosie seek out with others what they wish for with each other: for Sammy, an emotional connection, but for Rosie, just sex and pleasure.

Sammy seeks what he never had as a child due to his father’s absence. Contrastingly, Rosie’s father was too present in her life by abusing her, so she fears connections with men other than the sexual pleasure they can bring her, which she searches for to temporarily escape both the pain of her childhood and the pain of her current job. Unlike Sammy, Rosie is undergoing extreme stress everyday unbeknownst to him as a result of her job as a social worker. The viewer has a mere glimpse of this at the beginning of the movie when she discovers the dead body of one of her cases. Everyday, Rosie must reconcile the humanity of seeing clients’ “photographs of … children and grandchildren” (9.198) with finding their dead, “jaundice yellow” bodies. (13.200) Rosie avoids personal/emotional connection because in her job, this can only lead to heartache: the closer you become with your cases, the more it hurts when they die. She believes the best way to avoid pain is to avoid any pleasure or connection (other than sexual) with another person so that they can never hurt her because they cannot hurt her if she doesn't care. She is missing out on so much joy just in case it could indirectly bring her

pain.
Even amidst the chaos of the riot outside and Rafi’s arrival at Sammy and Rosie’s house, Rosie insists on going to see her “lover” that night. Though named, we never see him because he is unimportant in Rosie’s life. Rosie has had a traumatic day, and now she feels as if she needs to have sex to forget about it, instead of actually processing it. In the screenplay, it is indicated that when Rosie tells Sammy she is going out that evening, she does so “coldly.” (25.207) When Sammy advises her that it is too dangerous to go out and that she should not leave their guest, Rosie declares, giving insight on her daily struggle and decisions that she makes as a result:
One of my cases dies today. An old man. You wonder what your own life means. I hate my job, picking up the smashed pieces of people’s lives. Everyone despises you for it: the people whose lives you're poking into, and the others who think you're pretending to be a fucking saint. (25.207)

Perhaps terrible external conditions are needed for extreme joy, such as the joy in “My Girl,” to be achieved, for joy compared to awfulness is even more joyous. Sammy and Rosie have casual sex to make themselves feel better in the face of their unsatisfying lives, yet there is nothing traumatic that is specifically affecting both of them that they need to escape. Although London (and England in general) is in a terrible state and there are riots on Sammy and Rosie’s doorstep, this does not directly affect them because they are middle/upper class. Rosie faces depressing situations regularly because of her job, but Sammy is incapable of understanding because he never experienced anything similar, so he cannot help her to cope and she turns to sex with (relative) strangers. Sammy found his father’s desertion of his family traumatic, but, similarly, Rosie cannot not relate: the absence of her father in her childhood would have vastly improved it, so she cannot comprehend how it damaged Sammy. Sammy and Rosie have never experienced something awful together, so they cannot help each other because there is a lack of understanding. Rafi’s horrific crimes were relevant to their lives, but did not directly negative affect them. In fact, it positively affected them. As Rosie’s friend tells Rosie when confronting her about Rafi’s horrific doings, Sammy and Rosie’s “politics are just surface” due to their “class and background.” (58.240) Tragedy often tears people apart, but it also can bring them together like never before. When Rafi kills himself, this is something that very directly affects them: it will fully alter the course of their lives and life together. This is something that they need to cope with, and though the ending of the film is ambiguous, it is suggested that they will cope by growing closer and supporting each other emotionally. Sex does not even factor into the equation anymore, because it is no longer the most important aspect of their relationship/their most pressing need. Sex cannot solve this problem, as it is too substantial. When Sammy and Rosie were directionless, they did not need emotional support, or could not find it within each other, and turned to sex with others. Now, things are different. While “Sammy and Rosie sit on the floor together, rocking each other, waiting for the ambulance,” Anna, Sammy’s lover, glances over to Sammy as she leaves, “[b]ut he does not see her. It is just the two of them together.” (94.263) Anna, and therefore sex, is no longer relevant to Sammy’s life, and the same goes for Rosie, respectively. The film ends with Sammy and Rosie alone, holding each other. Following the events of the film, “My Girl” will become reality, not a comedic, ironic analogy: Sammy and Rosie will bring each other joy amidst their suffering; it will seem as if they have “sunshine on a cloudy day.”