Sick Sex

This could be an extended romp on the lines of “Not tonight, Dear, I have a headache.”

Ken and Amanda are a couple in their thirties. She has a temperature. But he wants to persuade her to have sex. In none-too-subtle fashion he makes advances and is rebuffed. He tells a story of some friends who reported having “the hottest sex ever” while the woman was ill. Amanda is not convinced and, I’m afraid, neither was I.

Sick Sex uses constantly shaky hand-held camera movement to make it feel like a home movie. Instead of being romantic, Ken tries to woo Amanda with what might be Woody Allen -style patter if it was more sensitive and a little funnier. She responds with lines like, “You know how sick I feel - why are you being a dick?” This is only amusing if you find the title and words like ‘dick’ hilarious for their own sake. The characters seem to have little in the way of real communication. So it is hard to believe they are a couple anyway. There is little or no attempt to create atmosphere, and lots of close ups (with the lack of establishing shots) make it feel like an impromptu sketch when the only prop was a bed.

The theme has plenty of opportunities, not just comic. It is a shame that they seem to have been largely wasted on this occasion.