A Comédia dos Pecados

"The Little Hours" (2017 release; 90 min.) brings the story of a group of nuns in a small convent. As the movie opens, we are reminded it is "Garfagnana 1347", and we watch as the nuns go about their daily tasks and deal with their frustrations. Meanwhile, the handyman at a nearby castle is found out to be cheating with his master's wife, and as luck would have it, he ends up being hired by the priest running the convent. It's not long before some of the nuns have "impure thoughts"... To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: the movie is very loosely based on/inspired by the book "The Decameron" by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (and source for the infamous 1971 movie of the same name by Pier Paolo Pasolini). Writer-director Jeff Baena takes a couple of the dozens of tales found in that book, and builds a script around it that is intended to showcase several of the actresses playing the nuns, including Alison Brie and Audrey Plaza (the latter also being a co-producer). The handyman is portrayed by Dave Franco (brother of James Franco, and looking remarkably similar). It took my quite a while to get into the flow of the movie, as at first we're not sure what to make of all this (the F-bomb laced outbursts, for one). Is this even comedy? If so, it's certainly one with a heavy twist of semi-absurd Monty Python-inspired comedy. The movie really hits its stride in the second half, where there are some memorable scenes (the "confession" taken by the priest of the handyman truly is a classic). The priest is played hilariously by John C. Reilly, who seems to revel in this part. Given that I had no idea in the initial 20 min. whether I would even stay through the end of the movie, that is quite remarkable!

"The Little Hours" premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival to positive buzz, and so when it finally opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, it was a given that I would check it our. The Sunday evening screening where I saw this at was attended nicely, somewhat to my surprise. Maybe people will find this a quirky little comedy. For me it was a bit too much all over the map, even if the second half is markedly better than the first half. In any event, I encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

With such a fantastic cast and an interesting premise, I really expected this to be better that it was. Hypersexual nuns at a convent is a fun gag, but it runs out of steam fairly early on. Given all of the comedic talent involved, I should have laughed a lot more than I did. There are some amusing moments, but they pop up far less often than necessary.

My extensive experience with nuns in grammar school taught me that their sexual repression as it affected us was a life-long gift leaving us to search for the goodness of sex and the secrets of females. Jeff Baena's The Little hours confirms what we always suspected: The younger nuns and postulants actually had firm breasts and world-class hormones.

Handyman Masseto (Dave Franco) hides in a convent in 1347 medieval Italy as a deaf mute (no doubt the way some women consider men anyway). Malaspina Castle would remind you of the iconic castle in Monty Python and The Holy Grail, and their English vernacular evokes the abandon of Mel Brooks' several satires. While the young nuns explore their interest in the forbidden, especially sex of several kinds, the jokes are weak by comparison with Python, Brooks, and even Boccaccio's Decameron, on which this film is loosely based.

Not just the randy nuns and handyman violate the Church's dictates against freewheeling sex, the venerable overseer, Father Tomasso (John C. Reilly), is carrying on with an older nun while listening to the salacious details of the younger nuns' sins in confession. Reilly is always competent displaying a simple man's wonder at the underbelly of the world.

In grammar school a nun shouted me out for holding a girl's hand, calling me a "dirty thing." I had more laughs over that kerfuffle than during The Little Hours, where laughs are in limited supply while the parody of sanctimonious medieval religiosity is mildly rich. But not rich enough to eclipse the wit of Python and Brooks.

"I did 12 years with nuns, you know. So I came out of it going, like, 'I think Jesus is all right.' The rest of it I think stinks to the high heavens." Denis Leary

Loved it. We saw it at the Sydney Film Festival.

The film will struggle to find the audience it deserves because selling a medieval bawdy romp in today's market is difficult. I think back to the 70's and there were many more of these.

The cast is fun and the presence of quality actors such as Nick Offerman and John C Reily show it is not an ultra-low soft-porn production, though the titling could be referencing that at the start.

I saw this at the same weekend as the Beguiled, also about a group of women cloistered who encounter a single male. LH is far more fun and a better use of your time.

Set in Tuscany (no production notes on filming locations) it is prettily shot.

Nudity is not overused, there are a couple of breast shots and the full frontal stuff is in the distance by firelight so hardly tittilating. Nothing that was not done ad nauseum through the 70's

If you are someone who delights in a parody of religion and piety then this will tickle your pink bits. Laugh out loud moments. A delightful surprise.