A fast-talking, celebrity ensemble cast quips its way through a series of diatribes explaining exactly how each of them views what love is. Tom (Cuba Gooding, Jr. of Radio) is finally about to propose to his live-in girlfriend Sara (Victoria Pratt) on Valentines Day. But he arrives home to find a goodbye note and everything of hers gone from their apartment, except for two suitcases she could not fit in her car earlier in the day. He’s concerned about how all this will play out, while the only thing that matters to her is that she can get her things and be done with him. 

So that Tom could work up the courage to propose, he stopped by the local watering hole for a drink. Thinking it was going to be a big party night, he invited some of his buddies to his house, for moral support.  

The guys arrive before Sara and the signifying and pontificating begins. Sal (Matthew Lillard) is a womanizer; Ken (writer/director Mars Callahan) is a hen pecked married man that talks big when his wife is not around; Wayne (Andrew Daly) is flamboyantly gay; and George (Sean Astin of LOTR/ROTK) is the tree-hugging hippie. Each has something to say about their lifestyle and that of each other. What they say is sometimes interesting and they spew it out relatively well. The big downside is that it goes on too long. It’s one thing to become informed and another to be preached to.  

Finally, the doorbell rings and Tom opens the door expecting to see Sara. Instead, it’s a group of women that Sal invited to the house after Tom left the bar. What Pam finds interesting and funny is the men’s perception of each woman’s appearance as she crosses the threshold. Yes, they’re good looking on the porch, but once they enter the lions’ den of the living room, everything about them gets bigger; bigger hair, bigger tits…you get the picture. Hell, their hot imaginations even envision a pole that drops from the ceiling for a little dirty dancing!

The women go tit for tat (pun intended) on what they discuss among themselves. Things like oral sex and why women have to lie to their current lover about their prior intimate relationships are fair game. Gina Gershon, Anne Heche and Tamala Jones are able to give a female version of the guy talk that is just as candid and effective but with a lot less hot air, or the feeling of “alright, I got it!” 

The conversations and observations between the men and women when they’re all in the same room, along with the realization of what Tom should say to Sara when she arrives makes the film worth seeing, and maybe even adding your own dialogue.  

Love is a hotly and seriously debated topic in at least three other films so far this year. Caffeine and I Think I Love My Wife are two, and the other is Reign Over Me. Each has a different style of addressing love in various types of relationships. Reign is the best of the films by far, while I Think I Love My Wife and Caffeine are better than What Love Is.  

What Love Is certainly provides a raw discussion that is very well acted, about the subject of sex, to the extent that it had to be one F word away from an NC-17 rating. If you want to hear a debate about what love is, or isn’t, like you would hear in a down and dirty nightclub act, you’ll be thrilled with this film.