Review of A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (2008) by Ronald S — 28 Mar 2010

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures is a documentary with a good concept. Chris Waitt has recently been dumped for about the billionth time and he wonders what it is that makes girls leave him. In order to find out he decides to interview all his ex-girlfriends and get them to tell him why he sucks so much. Chris hopes he can use the process to better himself and help him grow as a person. The concept is obviously stolen from High Fidelity, but the documentary format ensures it stays interesting.

After 10 minutes of watching the documentary it's obvious why Waitt has been dumped so often. He is lazy, scruffy, expressionless and a bit of a dick. His trademark is to stare into space with his doe eyes and look apathetic. Ironically, this is also what makes Waitt attractive to the ladies and to the audience.

Unfortunately the majority of his ex-girlfriends still remember him as a bit of a dick and he only manages to convince a few into giving interviews. These interviews are entertaining and enjoyable as you get an insight into what his girlfriends thought about him at the time and why they dumped him. The interviews are edited in an attempt to create uncomfortable situations, but this is almost a total failure as most people will realise the awkwardness is in the editing, not in the actual events. Despite this the interviews are sometimes sweet and often funny. Although we are always laughing at Chris's expense.

As the film is meant to be about self-discovery, Chris decides to to better himself and after the first few interviews, the movie sidesteps away from its original concept and instead follows him as he tries various ways to attain an erection - a major problem in his relationships he's realised.

To find the elusive erection, Waitt does various stunts. These range from the hilarious (getting his balls whipped) to the tedious (asking every girl on the streets of London for sex.) Despite some of these stunts being entertaining they detract from the main focus of the documentary and turn what could have been a sweet tale about an important subject into a sex farce.