The Olivia Experiment Review

For a film explicitly about sex, and particularly about the female sexual experience, The Olivia Experiment has surprisingly little to say on the subject.  It presents itself as a feminized 40 Year-Old Virgin, but unfortunately, The 27 Year-Old Virgin doesn't have half the brains or laughs of its inspiration.  Glimmers of goodness occasionally peek through, but most are swallowed by the insipid cycle of talking about sex in the blandest possible way.

The titular Olivia (Skye Noel) is a Gender Studies grad student whose lectures lack punch, because - as a mentor tells her - she loves language but doesn't have enough experience living, so her way with words is put to waste.  Thus, Olivia decides to dive into the unknown realm of sexuality, beginning with an adorably awkward trip to an asexuality support group, which she uses as a broader therapist's couch to bemoan her inability to function in society.  The group's leader suggests that Olivia may be using asexuality to hide, and that she may want to find support elsewhere.

Which she does.  Olivia's quest for experience becomes a project with support from students, friends, and faculty sharing their thoughts and feelings about love, lust, and sex.  These interview scenes tick all the boxes one would expect - unexpectedly horny older women, hopeless romantics waxing mildly poetic, a male student who volunteers to drop trou right then and there.  This film-within-a-film provides some meta-commentary on The Olivia Experiment Itself; both have that amateur glean to them, with shots that aren't quite the right length, editing that almost achieves an enjoyable flow from scene to scene, and acting that ranges from boring to hammy.

It's a shame, because there are plenty of good things in place.  Though Noel plays Olivia with so much jittery energy that she becomes a non-person, she's a refreshingly different-looking romantic lead, and with a little fine-tuning, she could be a geek goddess in the vein of Felicia Day.  The main set-up of the film - Olivia's friend Felisha (cast standout Jen Lilley) lends Olivia her '90s heartthrob boyfriend Julian (Brett Baumayr) for a weekend of naked exploration - has potential for some funny gags.

Instead, Olivia spends most of the film pontificating about whether she should go through with it or not.  It makes sense that the stakes are high for her personally, but the film doesn't manage to make the viewer care.  Instead, the harping on quickly becomes so much brainy noise, and the eventual pairings are so obvious as to remove any sense of dramatic tension whatsoever.  There's not much in the way of a backstory for Olivia; the biggest insight into her coming-of-awkwardness is a paper-thin mother character (Barbara Lee Bragg) who spends her time partying with Olivia's charming gay roommate (Dan Gordon).  The entire package is depressingly lazy.

Female sexuality is a topic worthy of begin tackled on film, but it deserves much more insight, humor, and originality than this tired trek through virgin territory.