Venus: Movie & DVD Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

Roger Michell's "Venus" stars Peter O'Toole in a moving, Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actor as Maurice Russell, an elderly, London-based actor who enjoys his share of drink and the carefully lobbed bon mot, and who has yet to deliver his swan song when it comes to the female pursuit.

If the movie seems a perfect fit for O'Toole, it is.

Based on Kanif Kureishi's script, "Venus" is eager to blur the lines between O'Toole's character and his off-screen persona, but that's hardly the only way the movie generates interest.

Beneath the film's initial high moments of comedy lurks a serious drama about aging. It's a movie that recognizes that in old age, our minds might remain bright with humor and mischief, but our bodies nevertheless are designed to betray us. Coming to terms with that unwanted truth is what gives "Venus" its emotional final act.

The film's key plotline involves Maurice's relationship with Jesse (Jodie Whittaker), the crude, unmannered grandniece of his best friend, Ian (Leslie Phillips), a fellow actor who defines high maintenance. Like her uncle, Jesse also is something of a handful, though she isn't nearly as endearing. She's closed and unhappy, a brittle young woman filled with such rage that she seems determined to spoil her otherwise attractive exterior.

Maurice recognizes her rage as pain. For him, she's his Venus and what develops between them is a complicated relationship of sensual and financial give and take--he gives her diamond earrings and a new dress, she allows him to kiss her neck and caress her hand. For some, their tenuous bond will prove uneasy, at best, particularly since Maurice is 50 years Jesse's senior. But the way it's handled here makes for a satisfying study of two different generations armed with their own set of needs, which each is determined to put first.

For Maurice, who sits up in bed late at night, alone and unable to sleep, that need is to touch and to be touched. It's so great that he's hardly above paying for it. As for Jesse, her relationship with Maurice infuses her with a rush of self-confidence she never had. She knows she's in charge of how close they will become and it emboldens her, so much so that at one point she becomes reckless with Maurice's life, which brings them--and the movie--to a turning point.

While the story occasionally veers out of focus, taking unnecessary detours that detract from the core, this never is true for the performances, which are spot-on. Vanessa Redgrave is particularly affecting as Maurice's ex-wife--she and O'Toole share some of the movie's most satisfying scenes. Likewise for Whittaker, whose presence is akin to a bruise. Still, this is O'Toole's movie, and what he develops behind Maurice's mask of fragility and longing is a character who resonates and, fittingly, who touches.

Grade: B+