Review of The Little Death (2014) by Ola G — 07 Aug 2016

The secret lives of five suburban couples living in Sydney reveal both the fetishes and the repercussions that come with sharing them. A woman with a dangerous fantasy and her partner´s struggle to please her. A man who begins an affair with his own wife without her knowing anything about it. A couple struggling to keep things together after a sexual experiment spins out of control. A woman who can only find pleasure in her husband's pain. A call centre operator caught in the middle of a dirty and chaotic phone call. And the distractingly charming new neighbour who connects them all. The little Death explores why do we want what we want? How far will we go to get it? What are the consequences of that fleeting moment of sexual ecstasy?

Josh Lawson's directorial debut puts the finger on slightly odd sexual fetishes we might not normally see in comedies or romcoms for that matter. Fetishes exist but isn´t really taked about, however that´s maybe not so strange as it does put you on the spot of diverting from the set norm, even if we all have some sort of fetish. "The Little Death" has solid acting, but fails to really tie the stories together in my eyes and the last part with the communication operator just seems to not even belong to the rest of the film. Josh Lawson doesn´t manage to hold everything together in the end and the characters almost becomes sitcom clichés. It seems he ran out of inspiration and just added the parts and hoped it would become a wholeness in the editing room. Despite as said solid acting from all involved it´s the lovely Bojana Novakovic that stands out and her character´s fetish (that is actually amongst the most wellknown fetishes). "The Little Death" doesn´t reach the finishing line, but the effort is ok.