The Easy Bit

It is unlikely that anyone watching The Easy Bit will fail to be touched, at some point, by the stark emotions that the six men display during the film. Tom Webb’s documentary is a sincere project that tries to get to the core of male emotional perspectives on infertility and fertility treatment.

The early section of the film concentrates on the six men relating their feelings on the treatments and advice they receive. This is done simply via a talking head format with each contributor having their unique colour as a background.

As the film progresses to the treatments, it shifts some of the focus towards their wives and partners as they go through the in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure. A procedure that is highly invasive and traumatic on a mental and physical level. Some had to go through it many, many times, some without success.

The distress the endure is raw and the heartbreak is palpable and for the most part the documentary plays it straight to camera. There are some technical explanations of the various procedures involved using visuals that could have been inspired by 1970’s Open University TV presentations minus hirsute presenter and brown garments.

It’s a difficult film to engage with because the dry format and the irritating tendency to place a voiceover over a still of the person talking, which doesn’t add anything. It is not without some humour however as when the men recount when they were asked to provide samples for the IVF procedure i.e. ‘The Easy Bit’. Sticky magazine pages and lurid films and I’ll never look at Gardner’s World in the same way again!

The Easy Bit will be available to rent on Vimeo from 29 April.