Buckle up, folks, this one is a review for adults only. As a family newspaper, we’re going to keep this a PG as possible. However, frank and honest discussions about sex and sex work are not only an important part of the movie at hand but also integral to review it. This isn’t just an adults-only movie because of mature content, but its themes and ideas need maturity to fully understand and appreciate.
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With that said, sex is one of the biggest sellers of mainstream American cinema since its inception. The screwball comedies of the 1930s and ’40s starring the likes of Mae West, Jean Harlow, Cary Grant and William Powell, though definitely appropriate for all audiences on the surface, are full of hot innuendos and wordplay.
Fast forward to the 1950s and ’60s, you have Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman and Sophia Loren not only acting their hearts out but doing it while looking as steamy as possible in that era. With the latter decades of the 20th century, and the advent of R-rated movies, the envelope was pushed further still — who could forget “Basic Instinct” or “Fatal Attraction”?
And yet, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie quite like “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” a drama-comedy about a mid-60s widow and her unexpected relationship with a mid-20s sex worker over the course of four encounters in a hotel room.
As emotionally moving as it is hilarious, the film not only has frank and honest discussions about nocturnal activities for older women and professionals in the business but asks the audience to consider what judgments they might hold over themselves. It’s a clever and witty probe into a bedroom situation that is a wonderful analogy to something all of us want — sincere human connection.
Directed by Sophie Hyde and written by Katy Brand, “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” follows Nancy Stokes (played by Emma Thompson), a retired school teacher and widow who hires a young sex worker named Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack), having booked him online in a rare moment of self-indulgence within a largely repressed life.
Staged and filmed much like a play with nearly all the runtime set in the one hotel room, Nancy tells Leo her bedroom life was dull and unfulfilling and wants to experience some of the thrills her married life was missing. While Nancy is embarrassed about her physical appearance and age, Leo reassures her she has nothing to fear and encourages her to embrace it.
As their sessions go on, the two begin to discover more about their personal lives, forgoing the physical time they could spend together talking and sharing their struggles, worries, hopes, dreams and discovering they both have more to offer the people they love than first suspected.
A two-person show for most of its runtime, this entire movie depends on legend Thompson and relative newcomer McCormack keeping the audience’s attention the whole time. That’s not hard when they’re two extremely attractive actors, but it’s their vulnerability, tenderness and comedic timing that truly sells what is a sex comedy with basically no sex.
Most people who have been in a romantic relationship with the same person for many years or decades know that looks are really the last thing that makes a person truly sexy. Because as youthful bodies age, a person’s humor or kindness or virtues in life is what really counts, and that’s what both Thompson and McCormack bring to every scene.
But the thing that sets “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” apart from other sex comedies is the sincerity and honesty it brings to conversations about the complexities involved. No one is the butt of a joke, no one is belittled or made to be a manipulator. For the first time in my movie-viewing experience, we get discussions about intimacy for both older people and sex workers alike that go beyond the physical and hit the emotional truth.
And yet, the film goes even further to make sure every adult watching it knows they have nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about. Thompson is 43 years older than McCormack, but if you had to go off the looks on their faces, they are both ageless in beauty and wisdom, and so are you.
