Review: The Little Hours

I need to say right off the mark that The Little Hours won’t appeal to everyone. If you are the kind of person whose favorite movie is The Princess Bride and reruns of Monte Python are your go-to late night fare, then The Little Hours is for you.

I found The Little Hours funny. It’s dry and droll and absolutely silly. The most hilarious lines are delivered with a straight face by everyone. And the everyone in this movie is pretty impressive.

The cast includes Alison Brie, Kate Micucci, and Aubrey Plaza as three sex-starved nuns. The Father and Sister running the nunnery are played by John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon. Those two aren’t sex starved because they are sleeping together. Fred Armisen does a fantastic turn as a Bishop.

The time is the 1300s. Yes. 1300s. Into this haven of Christian sensibility comes Massetto (Dave Franco). He’s running for his life after sleeping with the wife (Lauren Weedman) of Lord Bruno (Nick Offerman). And isn’t he a lovely sex object?

Supposedly based on one of the stories in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, the setting and costumes are from the Middle Ages, but the dialog is as contemporary as 2018. This cognitive dissonance adds to the comic nature of the situation.

The nuns want nothing more than to get out of the convent. The nuns include witches, Jews, lesbians, and the aforementioned sex-crazed nubile young women. Speaking of witches, I should mention Marta (Jemima Kirke), the leader of the coven cavorting naked in the woods outside the convent.

There are sins, confessions, sacramental wine, late night goings on, dungeons, donkeys, and the search for sex to keep the plot going.

The Little Hours is currently streaming on Amazon Video.

Really, the trailer gives you everything you need to decide whether The Little Hours is for you. If you watch it, I’d love to hear what you thought of it.