Jokes about sexless marriages are nothing new. Raunchy movies about how to “solve” them, on the other hand, are a relatively recent phenomenon.
In the 2014 film Sex Tape, married couple Jay (Jason Segal) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) work to bring the passion back into their marriage—but the plot thickens when they record a sex tape and accidentally share it on the cloud with everyone they know. And in the 2017 film 30 Nights, married couple Nick and Willa see a therapist who insists they must have sex every night for 30 nights.
Pulling off a successful sex comedy is no easy feat. Both these films did not quite hit the mark—each hovered around 5/10 on IMDB, with critics accusing Sex Tape of “cinematic impotence.”
“…both fake an orgasm so they can be done with the ordeal.”
The most recent addition to the genre is Sean Garrity’s 2022 film The End of Sex, set to release on demand in June 2023. Here, married couple Josh (Jonas Chernick) and Emma (Emily Hampshire) embark on a week-long journey to relight their sexual spark while their kids are away at summer camp.
As soon as their kids board the bus, they ponder what to do with their sudden free time—brunch, a matinee, or, as Emma suggests, “We could drive to the gymnastics studio and just sit in the parents’ waiting area.” Then Emma offers, “We could make some sex,” to which Josh responds, “Oh yes, let’s totally make some sex.” They rush inside. Josh dusts off the box of condoms, and they get to it. But it turns out they might have forgotten how. And after trying a variety of sexual stimulations, they resort to the missionary position. Ultimately, both fake an orgasm so they can be done with the ordeal.
There’s much in the film that might resonate with married adults and parents. Waning sex in marriage is not just a cliché. It’s an established fact. According to a recent study, over 15 percent of married individuals hadn’t had sex in the previous year—and for 13.5 percent, it had been over five years.
