My Year Without Sex (Sarah Watt, 2009) Sacha Horler, Matt Day
I bought the DVD years ago, but took until 2018 to get up the courage to watch the film. I knew that Sarah Watt had died of cancer not long after making this film and thought it might be depressingly autobiographical. And perhaps it is. But Sacha Horler's character has had an aneurysm (which is why she can't risk having an orgasm - whence the title).
I first saw Horler, as I suppose most people did, in Praise - which is a horrible film - but which contains one of the most courageous performances I've ever seen. And she does it again in this one, allowing her body to go through things that no Hollywood star would allow to happen for any number of Oscars.
Here's the opening paragraph of Louise Keller's review for Urbancinefile.
It's about faith and the lack of it, winning and losing, caring and sharing and just the less than simple art of surviving in a chaotic world. Sarah Watt's follow up to Look Both Ways is a gem of a film: a wonderfully observed snapshot that canvasses the emotional pulse of a family in the suburbs. It's the slant with which Watt affectionately embraces her characters that make it so engaging; humour abounds everywhere as fate, irony, circumstances and human nature conspire to fill life's cup with hiccups galore. As catastrophes of differing size and intensity thunder down on the lives of Ross, Natalie and their kids Louis and Ruby, we are there for the fallout, watching the ripples. Nothing much happens - except for an aneurysm, a car crash, a lost football game, an absent tooth fairy, hair nits, a blown fuse, a dabble with faith and a year without sex.
Garry Gillard | New: 25 September, 2018 | Now: 24 June, 2020