Movie Review: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

 Movie Number 30 of 2022

Movie: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Cinema: Village Cinemas Gold Class, The Rivoli, Camberwell

Stars: 5

It was a good night last night. I made Chicken and Miso soup with chilli poached eggs, which was out of this world. 

And I saw Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. 

If I wasn't in Gold Class, I'd have stood up and applauded. 

It's a most wonderful film. I like films which tell the truth. This has the truth in spades. 

It's an easy premise. Nancy (Emma Thompson), a fifty-something, widowed, buttoned up, repressed, retired teacher, hires the services of Leo Grande (Daryl MacCormack) to induce her sexual awakening. Leo, confident, fit, a business man, is bloody good at his job as he initially gently leads Nancy to where she wants to go - not that Nancy has much of a clue about what's on offer. Leo is the perfect gentleman to help Nancy. Leo would the the perfect man to help any woman in this predicament. 

Over a number of sessions, we learn a lot about Nancy, her life, her marriage, her hopes and fears, as we also get to know more about Leo, who comes across as super-confident until some chinks show up in his armour. You're never quite sure where this film is going - something I love in a film. By the start of the third act you're wondering if Nancy will find her orgasm. Does she or doesn't she? I won't say. 

There is so much to love about this film. The once taboo subject of older women and sexuality is broached head on. Being one of those older women who knows what it is to feel invisible, Thompson is a woman of her time, showing, what many of us are feeling in our own ways. The fact that every emotion registers on her face helps. That Katy Brand's script is laugh out loud funny, yet poignant and very human is another. We all want a connection. This film just dares to show it. 

Daryl McCormack is perfect as sex worker Leo, giving just the right mix of forthrightness and vulnerability. He's also bloody good to look at and I dare anybody to not want to drown in his green eyes and be taken on a journey with his lovely Irish accent. 

Sophie Hyde's direction is assured. 95% of the film is set in an anonymous hotel room where Nancy and Daryl's arrangement takes place. The laughs are plentiful, yet nuanced. She doesn't flinch from highlighting Nancy's prickliness or Leo's failings. It's also sex positive and body positive - including some full frontal nudity - and good on that, I say. 

As what is ostensibly a two hander, this shortish film (97 minutes) is gold. Bold, brave, bloody funny and raw. 

Take your friends. Take your boyfriend. Take your mum. This is wonderful. Better than I though it would be. 

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