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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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Seen, Heard, Noted & Quoted
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A- Rated R 95 min
The premise of Venus, a delightful film by Roger Michell deals with bridging a fifty year generation gap with love, compassion, and understanding. The story shows that a man in his eighties, Maurice (Peter O’Toole), an icon of British theatre, can communicate with his pal Ian’s 19 year old niece’s daughter Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), winning her respect and a greater understanding of his generation.
Maurice and his best friend Ian (Leslie Phillips) are successful theater actors who meet daily, have a drink, and talk about their theater triumphs and complain about the aches and pains of being over 80 years old. Ian thinks he is going to die any minute, so he agrees to let his grand niece, Jessie, move into his flat to care for him. Jessie is a teenage alcoholic with a potty mouth. She’s rude, and completely disregards her responsibility to care for Ian.
Although Jessie is incorrigible, Maurice is rejuvenated by her youth and sees himself as her mentor. Having been a ladies man all his life, Maurice is infatuated by her rough edges. He is determined to bring culture into her life and soak up her youthful essence. Jessie becomes his next big project.
As time goes on, Jessie actually becomes fond of Maurice. However, her youthful angst leads her further astray into the arms of a young punk, who schemes to rob Maurice. In one scene, Jesse’s new beau roughs up poor Maurice. But, Jesse feels real remorse and goes to Maurice’s side. He finally gets her a job modeling nude for an art class. This gives her some pride and she begins to change.
Michell’s real premise explores the dichotomy between the elderly and today’s alienated young generation. The story shows that the younger generation and the elderly can learn important lessons from each other if they will only try to meet on common ground. Of course, Maurice is a lecherous old man who delights in copping a feel, which Jesse allows to a certain point. At first, Jessie is going along with Maurice to see how much she can get out of him. Then, she develops a close bond with him. He takes her to the theater and the pub where the theater crowd hangs out. He doesn’t judge her, but when she gets drunk, he takes her home and puts her to bed.
As a subplot, Maurice visits his ex-wife and the mother of his three children, Valerie (Vanessa Redgrave). Although they have lived apart for many years, they are still close friends. Redgrave practically steals the picture in her short sequence. She is made up to look years older, but her spark of beauty and intelligence shines through. O’Toole’s and Redgrave’s scenes together remind viewers of their past glories. Considering their illustrious past in films and television, they’ve still got scene-stealing charisma, especially together.
As Ian’s life starts to fade away, he gets terribly grumpy and complaining. Still, Maurice never loses his patience with him, but spends more time with Jessie. Both Jessie and Maurice are benefitting from the strange relationship. When Jessie feels generous she lets Maurice touch her in private places, but only for a moment. Maurice lights up with long repressed passions and it jolts his heart to keep pumping.
Whether Jessie is all that Maurice sees in her is moot. His relationship with her has given him a new lease on life. Jessie seems to have benefitted greatly from Maurice’s wisdom and exposing her to culture. One could say Maurice is living out his My Fair Lady fantasy. But what’s the harm, he’s a lonely old man with only memories to help him get through the day. Jessie comes along and gives him a reason to live. Yes, Michell’s direction and Hanif Kureishi’s screenplay make a strong point about keeping the lines of communication open between generations and not embracing stereotypes. The film does this without being preachy and with compassionate grace. It was a great showcase for O’Toole’s talents, even as an elderly man of 80.
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