Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

A movie with great acting and a good story telling from female perspective. Very engaging, honest and satisfying. What a gem! Highly recommended. 9/10.

A widow 'of a certain age', Nancy (not her real name) books a hotel room and a fit young sex worker, Leo Grande (not his real name). Nancy never had an orgasm during thirty-one years of married life, so she has some catching up to do.

Emma Thompson's performance and Katy Brand's crisp script convey very believably the awkwardness and nervousness Nancy feels. Take out the sex and nudity (please don't!) and this could have been written by Terence Rattigan to be played by Deborah Carr back in the 1950s. There is a degree of theatricality to the film, although Thompson gives her all and courageously bares her all.

Daryl McCormack matches Thompson for both bravura and skill as the young escort who's not as self-confident as he pretends. More explicit even than Netflix's SEX EDUCATION, this is not a movie for porn perverts, it's a serious study of desire, disappointment and desperation. Both its stars deserve to pick up awards next winter.

It's time to take the plunge, and try stuff out, for years you've been unable to, checkout, so you're hiring a man, a metaphorical kind of fan, to raise a flame of which you have, a little doubt. When you meet it all seems like a bad idea, you're quite anxious, with a little bit of fear, should he stay or should he go, there are things you want to know, so you talk a lot, it's all very sincere. Extra couplings are arranged over the weeks, finding more than what you thought you had to seek, it's a therapeutic weave, and you finally achieve, to walk away as if you've just started to peak.

An engaging and rewarding tale of bravery and honesty about who you really are, and what you want.

This movie is at its best when the two leads are talking and revealing their innermost selves to each other. The acting is very good, the writing generally good with sensitive direction.

There are some points that are questionable though. It feels like a play and not a cinematic experience with the action taking place in one room. Emma Thompson blurting everything out at the waitress at the end felt ridiculous. And lastly, if you reverse the sex of the roles, is it still valid or just tawdry?

Why did I have to stumble upon this movie on Prime instead of seeing critics tout it on their platforms? A bravura performance by Emma Thompson in a 'small' character-driven movie that makes every superhero or thriller film look amateurish by comparison. Maybe I'm just partial to intelligent dialogue and rational, original plots. I have to wonder what Thompson's thought process was in deciding to take on this role. It can't have been easy for her, at age 63. Courageous! Daryl McCormack turns in an outstanding performance as a sex worker whose gentle professionalism and sensitivity is meant to set the retired teacher at ease. Highly recommended!