Venus 2007

5 stars for lighting

 3

He's no longer the blue-eyed heart-throb we swooned over in Lawrence of Arabia but for sure he still has the charisma. Peter O'Toole plays Maurice, a doddery, sick old actor who is unexpectedly smitten by the apparently sluttish Jessie.
It transpires that Maurice has always been 'one for the ladies', years before leaving his wife and 3 children under six, for a younger actress. The wife, admirably played by Vanessa Redgrave, is still supportive and friendly but wise to the old philanderer's whiles.
Leslie Phillips at last gets away from his 'Carry On' persona to play Uncle Ian, the truly cranky relative of Jessie who has been forced by her mother to leave her northcountry home.
Uncle sees her first as a vile intrusion and later, when he thinks Maurice has corrupted her, as an innocent provincial waif. In fact, she's both.

Maurice brings out the best and worst in Jessie, whom he re-names Venus after the famous Velasquez painting, as he tries to show her that there is more to her drab life and that someone genuinely cares.
On one level it's a black comedy - and it is very funny in places - about a lonely old man meeting a lost and defiant girl. On another
it achieves a sort of creepy vulgarity as Jessie uses sex to manipulate the 80 year old.
Because of this, we never quite gain enough sympathy with Venus to truly believe she has any other motive than a self-serving exploitation.
It brilliantly portrayed the horror of being old in run-down Britain and the generational gap where teenagers seem to be a different species from the previous generation.

The other real stars of this movie were lighting and design. Absolutely fantastic in every frame, it would be worth watching twice for the lighting alone which in places brings tears to the eyes it's so beautiful.

By Lynda Finn