Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie have transitioned back and forth between film and television. While "SNL" alum Sudeikis has prominently starred in hit mainstream comedies Horrible Bosses and We're the Millers, Brie (best known for "Community") has held supporting roles in The Five Year Engagement and Get Hard. The two actors are the leads of Sleeping with Other People, an indie romantic comedy written and directed by Bachelorette's Leslye Headland.

The film opens in 2002, with Lainey (Brie) and Jake (Sudeikis) taking each other's virginities on the rooftop couch of his Columbia University dorm. We jump ahead to the present day in which neither has forgotten that one-night stand. Each holds a fear of commitment. While Jake is dumped by his casual girlfriend over his sleeping with her best friend, Lainey confesses to her beau (Adam Brody) that she has cheated on him sixteen times. Lainey and Jake reconnect outside a sex addicts' meeting that each is attending on others' recommendations.

They click on a date but show better judgment than to follow their urges to the bedroom, instead establishing a safe word ("mousetrap") to prevent things from getting sexually charged between them. Thus begins a close and unconventional friendship. Jake uses an empty green tea bottle to demonstrate to Lainey how she can masturbate to climax. She confides in him regarding her longtime relationship with his boring classmate, gynecologist Matthew Sobvechik (a mustachioed and deliberately unlikable Adam Scott), whom she cannot bring herself to quit even if he's engaged.

We recognize the obvious mutual attraction between these two candid friends, but the movie makes us wait to play out in the exact manner we expect. Jake starts up a relationship with the divorced boss (Amanda Peet) at the tech company that he and his friend (Jason Mantzoukas) sold out to. Lainey casually begins dating a single dad (Marc Blucas) who uses his son to pick her up at a child's birthday party, where she led a spontaneous dance lesson on Ecstasy.

Sleeping has occasional insight into the messiness of relationships, the challenges of monogamy, and the difficulty that attraction plays in maintaining a friendship with the opposite sex. As an indie (the film was produced by Gloria Sanchez Productions, a newly launched female-driven division of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's signature Gary Sanchez Productions), there is no pressure to deliver a couple of jokes every minute, enabling this When Harry Met Sally...-esque will-they/won't-they romance to unfold at a relaxed pace, with some unforeseeable if not particularly interesting turns. Both Sudeikis and Brie compel in their roles, which goes a long way to securing their characters the sympathy their actions and love lives would otherwise endanger.

While it may be smarter and more explicit than your mainstream romantic comedy, Sleeping isn't noticeably more satisfying. The climax leans heavily on an absurd public fight, the kind of spectacle that undermines the adult New York realism the movie otherwise maintains. Ultimately, it's difficult to share the movie's desire for these two leads to find happiness either together or apart.

Sleeping with Other People is the last IFC Films title to reach retail from Paramount Home Media Distribution in a four-movie arrangement signed May 2015 following their partnership on Richard Linklater's Boyhood. Like Clouds of Sils Maria (the first of the four), Sleeping is released only on DVD and digital, not Blu-ray, although the DVD does include a Digital HD copy with your purchase.

DVD Details 2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen Dolby Digital 5.1 (English) Subtitles: English, Spanish Closed Captioned Release Date: January 5, 2016 Single-sided, dual-layered disc (DVD-9) Suggested Retail Price: $29.99 Black Eco-Friendly Keepcase Also available on Amazon Instant Video

VIDEO and AUDIO

Even being judged only against standard definition discs, Sleeping with Other People doesn't look fantastic. The 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation shows that limited budget and lacks sharpness and focus somewhat consistently. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is okay, but most unremarkable, as the movie resists going heavy on needle drops.

BONUS FEATURES, MENUS, PACKAGING and DESIGN

The static, silent menus hold two subtitle options and no bonus features or previews of any kind. That's kind of strange and kind of disappointing but pretty par for the course when it comes to Paramount and new movie DVDs.

The lone insert joining the plain gray disc inside the unslipcovered black Eco-Box keepcase is the sheet holding directions and a code for redeeming the Digital HD with UltraViolet that is included with this purchase.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Sleeping with Other People has some appeal as an adult-oriented alternative to formula romantic comedies, but the movie never fully wins you over with its iffy characters and ultimately predictable story. Paramount's DVD is as basic as it gets, lending best to a rental for those who are especially fond of one or both of the leads.

Buy Sleeping with Other People from Amazon.com: DVD + Digital HD / Instant Video