Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

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!

Emma Thompson gives a very brave performance as a repressed sixtyish widow who decides to hire a professional escort to make up for the unfulfilling sex life she had when she was married. Fueled by Thompson's spiky intelligence and keen timing, it quickly moves from a comic exploration of female sexuality into an honest depiction of self-love and what prevents us from getting there. That dynamic also includes the escort (portrayed with polished compassion by Daryl McCormack) who unapologetically does his job on regular time-stamped appointments. Except for the appearance of a minor character late in the movie, this is a two-hander (sort of speak) that runs only 97 minutes. However. Katy Brand's perceptive screenplay and Sophie Hyde's sensitive direction manage the brevity with ease by highlighting the two stellar performances at the movie's core.

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.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) is an English film directed by Sophie Hyde.

The movie stars Emma Thompson as Nancy Stokes, an older woman who hires Leo Grande, a male sex worker. (Played by Daryl McCormack.)

By now, people have heard that Thompson is depicted nude, and that the movie has some simulated sex. True enough, but it's not an erotic movie.

It's a movie that could be a play--most of it takes place in a hotel room, and almost all of the dialog is between Nancy and Leo. The story isn't so much about sex as it is about a woman in her 60's who has been repressed all her life--in many things, including sex. She hires a handsome young sex worker in order to experience some of the sexual pleasure she's never had.

Dame Emma is one of the great actors of the late 20th Century and into the 21st Century. Her work is so captivating that it makes the movie come alive.

I enjoyed this film, and I recommend it. I don't recommend it because of the nudity or the sex, but because it's a tribute to a truly great actor. The movie has a fairly weak IMDb rating of 7.1. I thought that it was much better than that, and rated it 9.

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.