The End of Sex

As a bachelor and childless, I’m not sure I have a real grasp of the problems that married couple Emma (Emily Hampshire) and Josh (Jonas Chernick who is also the writer) encounter as they try to take advantage of their kids going to winter camp for a week.

Blessed with all this sprog free time they decide to rekindle their sex lives only to discover that what was, now isn’t, with them both faking at a crucial moment as they try to reel back the years. Worried that not only is their sex life stale but that it could be a sign of longer-term problems and relationship decline, they decide to kick-start their sex life.

That sets off their imaginations, with attempts to spice things up including an attempted threesome that doesn’t go quite as expected, a sex club that is embarrassing for all sorts of reasons, and Ecstasy where their ignorance and hearsay knowledge of the drug come are all too obvious.

Their problems are compounded by romantic interest from a mutual college friend Marlon (Gray Powell), Emma’s friend Wendy (Melanie Scrofano) who after years of frustration has an epiphany and Josh’s sharp millennial office colleague Kelly (Lily Gao).

Hampshire and Chernick are very well matched as a gently bickering loving couple, coming to terms with life’s changes. They are more than ably supported on a more purely comedic level by Powell and Gao. And then there’s Scrofano who comes close to stealing every scene she is in.

The film plays out over a series of sequences as Emma and Josh discover that maybe what they feel is expected isn’t quite what’s needed or what the problem is. Others will have better insight into their situation. From my perspective what director Sean Garrity and writer Chernick have presented, aside from the more outlandish bits, broadly has a ring of authenticity, more importantly as a comedy it generally works.

The End of Sex will be available on digital platforms from 3 July 2023.