Sex is a dance that’s best when it’s improvised. That is seemingly the subtext to ‘Good Luck To You, Leo Grande’. Written by comic actor Katy Brand and directed by Sophie Hyde, it’s a refreshingly honest look at age gap sex. Thankfully the candour means there are no traditional romcom tropes, nor “feeling to healing” denouement.
Emma Thompson portrays Nancy, a tightly wound retired and widowed ex-RE teacher, who books the titular Leo, a sex worker (Daryl MacCormack) for some no-strings sex. Problem is, she hasn’t ever experienced an orgasm, and is so repressed that even asking for one is not exactly in her wheelhouse. But what emerges between the unlikely duo is far more rich and complex than your average sex comedy.
Nor does it sting like Hanif Kureshi’s controversial, embittered film ‘The Mother’ which explores a similar pairing age gap with Daniel Craig and Anne Reid. Instead, it’s more akin to dialogue -heavy sixties films like ‘Carnal Knowledge ‘, or Woody Allen in his mid-seventies heyday, sans his casual misogyny. Grande is a nice guy, as well as pretty philosophical about his job.
The dialogue is what brings real heft to the film. Brand has a great ear for heterosexual discourse. When Nancy remarks on the seeming ubiquity of sex in contemporary society, stating, “You even get pole- dancing as a fitness hobby now”, Leo counters, “Yeah, but only if you’re a middle-class woman”. The logistics of sex work as mainstream commodity is somewhat lost on Nancy, something of an anomaly of her supposedly liberated generation. But even as she thaws, something sours between them. A line is crossed.
In spite of its flaws- an ill-judged dance sequence; a scene involving a slut-shamed ex-student of Nancy that seems shoehorned in, in a clumsy, zeitgist-baiting manner- the film is rather beautiful, making funny, astute comments about desire, ageing and autonomy in a world where there’s still so much damage caused by our basest and most natural impulses. Thompson and McCormack are wonderful together, creating characters who feel nuanced and likeable. The hotel setting- sanitised, luxe, spartan- only serves to expose the humanity even more.
Hit The North 