Tuesday 18 July 2017

The Little Hours, Cineworld, Edinburgh International Film Festival

A comedy of fourteenth century nuns.

In medieval Italy three young sisters are bored with their existence and dream of ways to escape their tedious existence.  To break their ennui they beat up the convent gardener, who leaves in disgust.  His replacement is a young man on the run from a local lord of the manor, who the priest introduces as a deaf mute.  Cue misunderstandings, confusion and nuns hell bent on sexual experimentation, a situation out of control and an audacious rescue mission.

The characters talk in American accents, which is probably better than an attempt at cod Italian.  They swear a lot, which has some initial amusement value, coming forth from those habits.  But the jarring element of the language is the use of contemporary slang, losing any sense of period.  The result feels more like a short comedy sketch that's been extended way beyond it's limitations than an actual feature film.  There just aren't enough laughs to cover up the weakness and predictability of the plotting.

Unless the idea of nuns uttering obscenities and trying out their powers of seduction is one that will keep you easily amused then this is best given a miss.

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