A COMPLETE HISTORY OF MY SEXUAL FAILURES on DVD!

This was a movie which I was disappointed to have missed first time around at the cinema, so when the editorial team here at OWF kindly threw a copy halfway across the UK for my viewing pleasure I was more than pleased. The DVD came out on Monday and is available at Amazon for £10.98. The movie is essentially a low budget tale of a thirty-something director looking back at a lifetime of failed realtionships and wondering 'why?' Obviously the first question that springs to mind for an audience encountering such a project is, why is this fun? There's no doubt that this is ultimately a self-indulgent project, one embarked upon by a man whose life and career are not where he wants them to be, one embarked upon to question and rectify that fact. But when thoughts like this are hurled towards a cinema screen there's an element of baring the soul involved, a truthful and honest approach to filmmaking that is refreshing in a world of the agenda ridden documentaries of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock (however witty and well composed these may be). And it is this sense of honesty and down to earth investigation of life that attracted me to the movie. What this movie totally surprised me with though was its wit. Cleverly cut and liberally spread with self-deprecating humour, the film was led ably by director Chris Waitt who seemed to have an instinct for the right buttons to press to milk his sad failures in love for all they're worth. Whether it was merely cutting a conversation to make it look like everyone he contacted responded with a sharp schoolyard burn or contriving an amusing way in which to pursue and thus cope with his character flaws that have contributed to his sexual failures to date there were always laughs to be had, certainly more than your bog standard formula comedies like THE ROCKER and even THE HOUSE BUNNY, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, STEP BROTHERS or any other predictable production that's been knocking about for the last few months. And let's face it, there's very few folks around who'd fail to laugh at a man who gets drunk, takes seven viagra tablets and then decides to film himself as he wanders the streets of London begging passing ladies for sex! Nonetheless, I was left feeling unsatisfied with the film. After the intriguing build-up and development, I couldn't help but be distracted by a number of flaws. It's all well and good that Mr Waitt portrayed himself as a lazy loser in love, but the encroachment of this persona into the fabric of the film wasn't welcome at all: certain aspects came across as contrived to say the least, such as a 'chance' meeting with a dominatrix on MySpace that led to a painful (in more ways than one) scene of flagellation and ball grabbing. And if that wasn't bad enough, we staggered through a series of scenes that vacillated between achingly truthful (these bits rocked!) and heartbreakingly premeditated (these didn't). But what ultimately broke the charm for me was the ending, 50% deliberate happy ending stock footage and 50% total emotional cop-out that comes from under thinking the concept, it completely undermined the candour and creativity of the original idea. All of which left me feeling slightly unsatisfied. At this point I would usually fall into similarly lazy habits and write a satndard conclusion about the film being different enough to carry itself and award it around three stars. However, as there were no extras whatsoever (a completely unnecessary extension of cinematic laziness in my opinion) I will instead conclude that the film is entertaining but not worthy of multiple viewings, and thus recommend you don't spend your hard-earned cash on this one. It's the credit crunch after all: wait for many better things. The DVD came out on Monday and is available at Amazon for £10.98.