The Little Hours (2017)

The Little Hours: Directed by Jeff Baena. With Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, Aubrey Plaza. In the Middle Ages, a young servant fleeing from his master takes refuge at a convent full of emotionally unstable nuns. Introduced as a deaf mute man, he must fight to hold his cover as the nuns try to resist temptation.

“My extensive experience with nuns in grammar school taught me that their sexual repression as it affected us was a life-long gift leaving us to search for the goodness of sex and the secrets of females. Jeff Baenau0026#39;s The Little hours confirms what we always suspected: The younger nuns and postulants actually had firm breasts and world-class hormones.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHandyman Masseto (Dave Franco) hides in a convent in 1347 medieval Italy as a deaf mute (no doubt the way some women consider men anyway). Malaspina Castle would remind you of the iconic castle in Monty Python and The Holy Grail, and their English vernacular evokes the abandon of Mel Brooksu0026#39; several satires. While the young nuns explore their interest in the forbidden, especially sex of several kinds, the jokes are weak by comparison with Python, Brooks, and even Boccacciou0026#39;s Decameron, on which this film is loosely based.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNot just the randy nuns and handyman violate the Churchu0026#39;s dictates against freewheeling sex, the venerable overseer, Father Tomasso (John C. Reilly), is carrying on with an older nun while listening to the salacious details of the younger nunsu0026#39; sins in confession. Reilly is always competent displaying a simple manu0026#39;s wonder at the underbelly of the world.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn grammar school a nun shouted me out for holding a girlu0026#39;s hand, calling me a u0026quot;dirty thing.u0026quot; I had more laughs over that kerfuffle than during The Little Hours, where laughs are in limited supply while the parody of sanctimonious medieval religiosity is mildly rich. But not rich enough to eclipse the wit of Python and Brooks.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;I did 12 years with nuns, you know. So I came out of it going, like, u0026#39;I think Jesus is all right.u0026#39; The rest of it I think stinks to the high heavens.u0026quot; Denis Leary”