Shot as a series of vignettes, the film is quite uneven. It is very loosely tied together by a man canvassing the neighborhood to inform people that he's a registered sex offender, using a unique and amusing device to distract them from his message -- by gifting nostalgic cookies that evoke happy childhood memories, that are long- discontinued because they were racist (an American equivalent would be "little black Sambo" cookies, if such had existed).
This is the first film for the writer / director, and it seems quite obvious that he took a psychology class on Deviant Sexual Behavior, utterly didn't understand the material, formed the conclusion that anyone with out-of-norm sexual interests is doomed, and decided to write a comedy about the subject. Four-fifths of it doesn't work, (unless you like your comedy about people whose lives and relationships are falling apart due to lack of communication) and the end appears to have been desperately cobbled together because he ran out of inspiration.
Apparently, there's no Internet in modern Australia, so no one can use it to find out anything about exploring non-standard sexuality, nor is there any open and honest communication between long-standing couples, such that they could discuss their desires in a productive way. Therefore, the "comedic" elements of the film consist of increasingly desperate spouses discovering an interest that excites them, then spiraling out of control and destroying their relationships while trying to either trick their significant other into satisfying their interest, or complying with that interest so outlandishly that it meets with disaster. Or both.
The saving grace of the film (and the only reason I didn't rate it a "3", is the beautiful and luminous 5th vignette about the public service sign-language-interpretation-for-the-deaf operator who inadvertently gets stuck interpreting a call to a phone sex line by a deaf person. Because the writer didn't understand the paraphilia of making obscene phone calls, he wasn't able to make "light" of it, and instead the skit becomes about two people making an hauntingly- intense, if brief, connection while coping with an awkward situation. If the entire movie had been like this one skit, it would effortlessly have been a "10".
This is the first film for the writer / director, and it seems quite obvious that he took a psychology class on Deviant Sexual Behavior, utterly didn't understand the material, formed the conclusion that anyone with out-of-norm sexual interests is doomed, and decided to write a comedy about the subject. Four-fifths of it doesn't work, (unless you like your comedy about people whose lives and relationships are falling apart due to lack of communication) and the end appears to have been desperately cobbled together because he ran out of inspiration.
Apparently, there's no Internet in modern Australia, so no one can use it to find out anything about exploring non-standard sexuality, nor is there any open and honest communication between long-standing couples, such that they could discuss their desires in a productive way. Therefore, the "comedic" elements of the film consist of increasingly desperate spouses discovering an interest that excites them, then spiraling out of control and destroying their relationships while trying to either trick their significant other into satisfying their interest, or complying with that interest so outlandishly that it meets with disaster. Or both.
The saving grace of the film (and the only reason I didn't rate it a "3", is the beautiful and luminous 5th vignette about the public service sign-language-interpretation-for-the-deaf operator who inadvertently gets stuck interpreting a call to a phone sex line by a deaf person. Because the writer didn't understand the paraphilia of making obscene phone calls, he wasn't able to make "light" of it, and instead the skit becomes about two people making an hauntingly- intense, if brief, connection while coping with an awkward situation. If the entire movie had been like this one skit, it would effortlessly have been a "10".