Sex and romantic comedies are almost as old as cinema itself. 2014's The Little Death, however, is a delightful twist: it's a comedy about sex and romance. It's an anthology piece about five average couples and their sex lives. Maeve has a depraved sexual fantasy which her boyfriend Paul (writer-director Josh Lawson) is very reluctant to fulfill; Evie and Dan (Kate Mulvany and Damon Herriman) to re-light their fire with role-play; Rowena (Kate Box) finds she becomes horny when her husband Richard (Patrick Brammall) experiences heartbreak; Maureen's (Lisa McCune) less lucid moments make her husband Phil (Alan Dukes) fall back in love with her; and in my personal favourite story, call-centre operator Monica (Erin James) becomes embroiled as an interpreter in a quite salacious phone call with deaf artist Sam (T.J. Power). Tying them all together is Steve (Kim Gyngell), a registered sex offender who distributes Golliwog-shaped gingerbread men and whose consistently dreadful timing provides the running gag.
This is undoubtedly for me the best and funniest Australian film comedy in years. Lawson has managed to concoct five separate story that work in an interlocking manner because together they represent any relationship's progress. Lawson also succeeds alongside in making each couple and their predicaments nonetheless feel distinctive, and he never judges or critiques them even though his comedic approach is pretty pointed. He also draws very funny and sympathetic performances from his whole cast including himself, with Power and Box being especially entertaining.
The title references a French phenomenon, "la petite mort." The Little Death isn't, therefore, actually about death. But while watching it., you may just die laughing.
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