THE LITTLE HOURS – Review

From left: Kate Micucci, Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza play nuns with pent-up lust and schemes that are played for bawdy comedy and slapstick absurdity in a movie based on a 14th-century story. Photo: Gunpowder & Sky (c)

Writer/director Jeff Baena draws on Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th THE DECAMERON for THE LITTLE HOURS, a bawdy, absurd comedy where the F-bombs fly through air thick with schemes and suppressed lust. Some audiences may object to foul-mouthed women religious but for those who don’t, Baena’s comedy is very amusing, as well as a clever updated twist on a medieval classic.

Nuns in the 14th century were different from today, as a convent was a place where prosperous families could send unmarried daughters or in which women without wealth could shelter, as much as a place for the religiously devout. Like Chaucer’s later THE CANTERBURY TALES, these women in habits could speak in plain, even rough, language in this tale studded with witty exchanges, practical jokes and earthy humor, as well as observations on life and humanity.

THE LITTLE HOURS stars Aubrey Plaza, who also serves as producer, and features a supporting cast that includes John C. Reilly and Nick Offerman. The costumes and rural setting may say 1347 but the language and behavior says 21st century teen girls. There are no “thees” and “thous” as these young women snark, eye-roll and “whatever” their way through the day. It is absurd, even silly, but mismatch between the surface appearance and the contemporary teen girl behavior is surprisingly funny, and the strong cast finds the human characters underneath as well.

Nuns Alessandra (Alison Brie), Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza), and Ginevra (Kate Micucci) live a quiet life in a convent in 1347 rural Italy, under the kindly eyes of Sister Marea (Molly Shannon) and their priest Father Tommasso (John C. Reilly). The life is so quiet that the young sisters entertain themselves with petty sniping and bickering, out of boredom if nothing else. Alessandra draws resentment and scheming from mean girl Fernanda and tattle-tale Ginevra as the rich girl who is too privileged to do her own laundry and living in the largest room. Meanwhile, clueless Alessandra is longing to escape life in the nunnery. When her nobleman father, a major contributor to the church, visits her, she presses him for any news on the marriage he had been arranging for her. It is not good – the dowry the suitor is asking is too steep. Depressed, Alessandra returns to her embroidery, which the convent sells for extra funds.

When the nuns’ latest sharp-tongued berating finally drives the gardener/handyman to quit, Father Tommasso is left in a quandary. But a trip to town to sell to Alessandra’s handiwork brings the priest in contact with a handsome young servant Massetto (Dave Franco) on the run from his last employer, a nobleman (Nick Offerman) who caught the young man in bed with his wife. The meeting solves both their problems: a place for Massetto to hide and a replacement for the convent’s handyman/gardener. To be on the safe side, the priest advises Massetto to pretend to be a deaf-mute.

That situation lays the groundwork for all kinds of mischief and silliness, plus lots of bed-hopping and drunkenness. The cast also includes Fred Armisen as a stern visiting bishop.

Writer/director Jeff Baena’s clever idea to keep the 14th century setting but have everyone speak and act as if it were present day works better comically than one might expect. As Boccaccio’s original collection of novels were written in the vernacular of its time, the idea makes a certain sense. The roles are played deadpan, not camped up, which actually makes it funnier. The film is not anything profound or deep, just a little bit of bad-language spiked fun, which has to count as a disappointment for literary fans. Still, Baena deserves credit for the effort although not everything about the film works and there are moments when the conceit seems forced. Updating the character’s language and behavior makes the situations sillier and adds a layer of fun, but it also often makes the source material’s underlying universal human themes more apparent, by taking away the disconnect created by archaic language.

Although a lot of intrigue and back-stabbing takes place, the film is surprisingly sweet in the end, Since this is a comedy, nothing really bad happens in the end, although audiences certainly will be aware things would not really turn out so sunny in medieval times.

The cast does a lot to make this unlikely concept work. As the three nuns, Plaza, Brie, and Micucci each bring their comic delights, making one think of high school even though what these women are doing involves digging vegetables, attending chapel and chasing the convent’s every-escaping donkey rather than attending classes and tryouts for the school play. As the conniving mean girl, Plaza is the queen of eye-rolling and her snarkiness particularly sets off the group’s outcast, busy-body Ginerva. As Ginerva, Kate Micucci is a bundle of nervous energy, chasing after the other two and never quite getting what is going on. Alessandra’s relative privilege gnaws at Plaza’s Fernanda, who cannot help plotting. Alison Brie’s Alessandra is cluelessly aloof and very much the princess, although clearly depressed at the prospect of spending the rest of her life locked in the convent. Dave Franco (younger brother of James Franco) is appropriately sexy and appealing as luckless Massetto, and O’Reilly plays Father Tommasso with a winning charm. The priest is almost the only character who talks about religion and God. While he seems a good-hearted man, he has a serious drinking problem and a casual view on lies and other sins.

With this winning cast, spending time with them is amusing if one is not too sensitive about the bad language, although the story kind of descends into nonsense when it brings in the spells and witches. THE LITTLE HOURS is a small delight more than a profound must-see but it does offer its share of bawdy fun, wrapped up neatly in the end. THE LITTLE HOURS opens Friday, July 7 at the Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Little Hours movie poster