The first question to ask in terms of The Little Death seems to be ‘Why did this movie get made?’ It’s not that it’s bad. It’s not that it doesn’t make you laugh (sometimes). Or even that it’s poorly acted (it boasts a cast of Offspring alumni and familiar Aussie faces like Kym Gyngell). It’s that it seems so pointless and contrived. By the end nothing is resolved, but it has ended, and it’s ended neatly, too neatly, leaving you wondering, ‘What did I just watch? And why?’
The muddle springs not from Lawson’s direction but from his writing. The film looks at four couples, each with their own sexual ticks and problems to navigate. And as Australian farce is wont to do, things go awry, they escalate dramatically and unexpectedly, the sexual deviant in each of them is unleashed, and everyone comes out a liar. A fun premise, an easy premise, one that has its moments of wry humour. But the writing lacks nuance; it’s hard to believe these people could really exist – they’re made up of hyperbole, their existence seems to be an obvious attempt at “daring”, without that daring, that exaggeration, highlighting anything concrete about who these people, and by extension, we, as middle class sexual people, actually are.
3 Stars.
In cinemas 25 Sep
