Hilarious, heartrending Leo Grande hailed
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (M, 97min)
Directed by Sophie Hyde ★★★★★
Reviewed by James Croot
Hilarious and heartrending, this might just be the best movie of the year so far.
A dramedy that should surely earn Emma Thompson a flurry of nominations during the upcoming awards season, at the very least, it also provides more evidence as to why Australian Sophie Hyde (52 Tuesdays, Animals, TV’s The Hunting) is one of the most impressive and exciting directors of her generation.
Written by British comedian and actor Katy Brand, it’s the sex comedy we didn’t know we needed. Sex positive, but sensitive and thought-provoking, it’s essentially a two-hander, with Thompson and co-star Daryl McCormack’s (Peaky Blinders) characters ‘‘connecting’’ over the course of four ‘‘meetings’’.
It’s a simple conceit, beautifully and perfectly executed – and I fully expect theatre companies all over the world clamouring for the right to stage it over the next decade.
The always eye-catching and entertaining Thompson (The Remains of the Day, Saving Mr. Banks), now 63, plays 55-year-old ‘‘Nancy Stokes’’, a retired schoolteacher and widow these past two years. After much internal debate, she’s booked herself a room at The Duffield hotel and McCormack’s 20-something ‘‘Leo Grande’’.
As we quickly learn, as she greets him among a flurry of nervous energy, she’s seeking human connection, an adventure and ‘‘some good sex’’.
‘‘I made a decision after my husband died to never fake an orgasm again,’’ Nancy blurts out, revealing that their 31-year relationship never deviated from the missionary position.
As she admits to all her fears, insecurities and truths (‘‘I just made the mistake of having a Mars bar’’, ‘‘I find my own son boring’’), Leo tries to ease her into the mood with a ‘‘fine vintage’’ from the mini-bar, clear ‘‘rules’’ and assurances that she’s ‘‘empirically sexy’’.
It partly succeeds – enough for her to rebook him for a second ‘‘session’’ anyway. And this time, she armed – and not just with a negligee with the price tag still on it. There’s a list of attainment goals. ‘‘I’ve looked at things on the internet,’’ Nancy asserts.
‘‘I want to be a woman of the world – there are nuns with more sexual experience than me,’’ she opines, opening up about how her husband planned his own funeral and she desperately ‘‘wants to play at feeling young again’’.
‘‘Although, I don’t want to be 16 again – it was awful.’’
But even as she makes ‘‘progress’’, Nancy can’t resist wanting their ‘‘relationship’’ to be a two-way street.
She wants to know a lot more about the real Leo Grande – who he is, what his hopes and dreams really are.
It’s a line of conversation he attempts to quickly shut down. ‘‘You’re not paying for the truth,’’ he snaps.
It’s this tension and exploration around how everybody wants something different and everyone has varying turn-ons, turn-offs and foibles, that makes Good Luck to You, Leo Grande such a powerful and compelling story.
There are times when the age gap between the two just melts away and others when it’s rather obvious.
Thought-provoking moments abound from discussions around consent, ageing and body image, to the importance of selfacceptance and love. In a way, it’s this decade’s When Harry Met Sally, a fluid relationship between people providing the backdrop for a wide discussion of love and sex in the modern era.
In another sense, it has similarities to the hugely underrated The Sessions, where Helen Hunt’s sex therapist helps polio patient Mark O’Brien lose his virginity and explore another side to his cloistered life.
What it most definitely is, is a frank, sometimes confronting, but thoroughly entertaining tale that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions, might just teach you thing or two (regardless of your age) and leave you with a huge smile – and more than satisfied with the experience.
❚ Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is now screening in cinemas nationwide.