The Little Death (2014) review

 After explaining that “little death” is a French euphemism for orgasm, Josh Lawson’s film introduces its characters, a series of couples. The fact that they live in the same neighbourhood is the only thing they would seem to have in common, if the film did not give us an insight of their sexual life. What really connects all these people, however, is that each couple’s effort of satisfaction or rekindling the fire in their sexual life is being tested by sexual fetishes. Masochism, role play, dirty phone calls and other, more unusual situations give to each of the film’s five different stories its main theme. Also, they make the film’s subject sound far more daring than it actually is…

In reality, The Little Death is but a common dramedy or even a rom-com. The interesting subject and its division into different stories may make the film a bit special, but, for the most part, the theme of sexual fetishes is exploited simply as a way to produce comedy rather than approached with realism. The result is undoubtedly amusing, as well as tender, but there is always a sense of lacking enough dare and honesty. Thankfully, Lawson avoids the danger of clichés and forced happy-endings and, truth be told, we would have no reason to complain about the film had its stories been truly solid and resolved. Its main flaw, however, is that after its ending (which might be unexpected, but it is also sloppy) most of the stories remain literally unfinished! 

Nevertheless, the beautiful final story leaves a sweet aftertaste, being arguably the best of them all. Along with the story about masochism, these two clearly stand out as notably sensitive and actually complete.

(2½ out of 5 spinning tops)