Venus Review

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"Venus" reviews

Movie

Venus

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-05-22 21:09:59

Rating

3/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Master thespian Peter O'Toole proves he's still at the top of his game in Venus, a poignant, complicated tale about mortality and passion.

Story

Veteran British actor Maurice (O'Toole) knows that his final curtain call is coming soon. Though he still earns booze and cigarette money playing small parts in TV movies, his heyday is far behind him, and his chief delight is gossiping and reminiscing about the old days with acting crony Ian (Leslie Phillips). But beneath Maurice's craggy, creaky exterior, the heart of a young rake still beats. That heart gets plenty of exercise when Ian's grandniece Jessie (Jodie Whittaker) appears on the scene. Fascinated by her youth and rawness, Maurice takes the girl under his wing--and it's clear even before he dubs her his Venus that his motives aren't exactly grandfatherly. No innocent herself, she responds by using her sexuality to manipulate him. As each learns more about the other, their complicated relationship twists and turns in ways both predictable and unexpected.

Acting

Whatever else can be said about Venus, it's undeniably an actors' movie--particularly one actor. O'Toole gives one of the best performances of his career in a part that seems tailor-made for the acting legend. Whether he's staring at Jessie with a combination of sympathy and lust, abruptly dissolving into tears of regret during a meal with ex-wife Valerie (Vanessa Redgrave), or sitting on his bed, quietly and sadly alone, O'Toole's Maurice is a fully fleshed-out, thoroughly lived-in character. The spark he feels when he meets Jessie is clearly the most exciting thing that's happened to him in a long time, and it's impossible not to sympathize with his newfound zest--even while raising an eyebrow at his pursuit. Newcomer Whittaker is also excellent, adeptly shifting between Jessie's moments of brazen, womanly confidence and naïve, little-girl hurt and eagerness.

Direction

Like its main character, Venus isn't an easy movie to categorize. Just when it seems like a quiet, dignified drama about one man's attempt to make peace with his own mortality, the advent of Jessie turns it into one of filmdom's more unlikely May-December romances. And then there are the movie's comic moments (one of the best is when Maurice takes a pratfall while trying to spy on Jessie when she poses nude for an art class). Director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, The Mother) takes all of these conflicting elements and weaves them into a compelling, challenging whole. It's hard to say whether he would have succeeded without O'Toole--in another actor's hands, Maurice could have been just another dirty old man, and some scenes frankly require all of O'Toole's talent to overcome that obstacle. But with this star and this director, Venus is artful.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 3 stars.

Movie

Venus

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-01-18 16:00:22

Provider

Review

Venus isn't the first time a director has dared to explore a relationship between a pensioner and someone young enough to be their grandchild – that honour goes to Hal Ashby's 1971 film Harold and Maude – but Roger Michell's film will, nonetheless, shock those for whom the notion of a young girl flattered by the advances of a 74-year-old is beyond the pale.

Peter O'Toole plays the septuagenarian in question. In art as in life, O'Toole is an actor, Maurice, who enjoys nothing more than bantering with his friend and fellow actor Ian (84-year-old Leslie Phillips). To his chagrin, the latter is forced to share his flat with Jessie (Jodie Whitaker), a 19-year-old working-class girl who works as Ian's nurse. "She's vile beyond belief," Ian tells his friend, gesturing at the teenager in the pink tracksuit.

Maurice begs to differ. Despite being physically unable to have sex, he is drawn to the crude Jessie, who allows him to kiss her neck ("Don't slobber") and accompany her to films and clubs. For Maurice such glamour serves as a reminder of the youth and beauty that the actor once possessed, as his ex-wife, Valerie, likes to remind him. 'Oh God, how handsome you once were," she says, catching him on the TV in an ancient film.

Handsome he may no longer be but, as Venus shows, O'Toole is still head and shoulders above most thespians, ensuring that Michell's film is a funny and heartbreaking exercise in love and loss.