My Year Without Sex (2010)

Wonderful character development!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I don't have much exposure to Aussie film as they rarely make it mainstream USA theater. I think the last one I saw was "Mureil's Wedding", which was incredibly funny, touched with enough raw emotion to make you identify with the cast, and leaving with a good warm feeling. That was my take on this one. I have a twisted love for the disturbing films ("Requiem for a Dream", " Black Swan"....)...you get the drift. But there is something about Aussie film that I find very appealing. Maybe it's their Disneyesque, all is well feeling with just enough realism to be believable. The acting is superb in "My Year Without Sex" , especially the the children, Louis and Ruby....where are they now?? Thank God for the Sundance Channel!!!!

When one enters a cinema noting that 90% of the audience is female, one expects 'chick lit' or a weepie. Sarah Watt is a great storyteller, but chick lit is not her scene. In episodic form, she portrays an ordinary family as they experience near-tragedy and misfortune, but come out of it with just a little bit of luck. This is a love story, and it portrays how a close family can overcome great stress by knowing love for each other. The key character is Natalie, played by Sacha Horler, a brave actor who can handle difficult parts superbly. Watt ignores the old rule: never appear with children and dogs. The children are truly very good, the dogs well-behaved. Does it help that members of the author's family are well represented? Look for 'Antoinette'. This is Watt's husband, William McInnes in drag. Another important character is Margaret, the one-time junkie pop singer, who essays a change as a priest, then surprises us all in the end. One hopes that this film reaches the rest of the world uncut. There is some strong language, but it belongs. Watt cleverly inserts the odd 'plant'. We wait in vain for the realization - Watt is an animator after all. And, yes, the audience came out smiling.

On the face of it this is pretty mundane stuff, a year in the life of an ordinary Western Suburbs Melbourne family, but Sarah Watts, responsible for another charming domestic drama, "Look Both Ways", is able to invest the story with a great deal of charm. She demonstrates without resorting to soap opera clichés that life in the suburbs can indeed be life on the edge.Natalie (Sasha Horler) a hard-working mother of two suffers a brain aneurism, fortuitously while at the doctor's. She recovers but is advised to avoid strenuous activities, including sneezing and having sex with her loving husband Ross (Matt Day). In the next twelve months, each neatly packaged into an episode, life does not go easily. Natalie has to give up her job, Matt is threatened with redundancy, the car is written off in a holiday accident, the clothes dryer self-destructs, the family dog is attacked, and the house gets more untidy than ever. But the family survives and the film ends on a positive note.This is a film most Australians would identify with. The family's situation is real and Watt generates a fair degree of humour out of it. There's Louis, a 12 year old Aussie Rule fanatic, Ruby, a cute 8 year old, and a much-loved dog, Bubblehead. There are some dodgy rich friends they envy and Ross (a sound engineer at a radio station) has a collection of odd workmates. Christmas and Easter are times of trial as well as celebration. Religious feeling hovers in the wings, especially in the person of former one-hit wonder pop-star turned priest Margaret (Maud Davey). Like most Australians the family are practising hedonists, but Natalie's brush with death does stimulate some deeper questions for them. Apart from the teasing chapter titles there's not much about sex in the picture, but there is a warm understanding of what makes families work. These are ordinary people kept together by their regard for one another. Money matters but it does not rule them. There's not a lot of support from their friends but they get by, somehow. Sasha Horler puts in an extraordinary performance, and Matt Day's rather self-effacing character complements her beautifully. Jonathan Segat as Louis the football fanatic is also extremely convincing. Unfortunately the $4 million budget does not leave a lot for promotion and this film will probably not be widely seen. It is more of a comedy and less of a drama than "Look Both Ways", but it is directed with assurance and flair.

Not many laughs from the audience at tonight's screening in Sydney. I started losing interest in this film around the time it got to 'May'.This is a mildly amusing comic drama about an average Aussie family and their year from hell. I found the film neither funny nor particularly moving. You'd think it would be considering it is about a woman battling back from an aneurysm and having huge doubts about her faith, relationship etc.The script just isn't polished enough and secondary characters (the blokey brother in law and his trophy wife etc) were like cardboard cutouts.The photography is unimaginative and the film seems dated, like it was made for television ten years ago.Disappointing. Like many Aussie films, this one needed a few more drafts done before it was given the green light.