Venus

Venus

Directed by: Roger Michell

Starring: Peter O'Toole

Genre: Romance/Comedy

Run Time: 95 min.

Release Date: December 2006

On The Web: Official Site

Teaser: Movie Trailer

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

You’ve gotta love dirty old men to enjoy something like VENUS. It certainly hits home with those in the 70 or older range who’ve lost their sexual physical attributes in some fashion, yet retain their psychological need for female companionship.

The freshness of Venus is that we get to see Peter O’Toole (CASANOVA) play an age-appropriate role and do it so well that he takes over the entire film. The downside is that there’s little else to give accolades to.

Kind of a reverse HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971), Venus switches the sexes and puts the age on the man and the youth on the woman. The woman is Jessie (newcomer Jodi Whittaker), the barely-out-of-her-teens niece of a friend of Maurice’s (O’Toole). Maurice’s buddy, Ian (Leslie Phillips), thought his niece might help take care of him, even liven up his rather dreary and mundane life. But when Jessie turns out to be an embittered and angry young woman whose only wish is to eat and drink him out of house and home, Ian runs and hides in his bedroom.

Enter Maurice who takes an instant liking to Jessie (he calls her Venus). Sexually attracted to her yet battling prostate cancer, Maurice and Venus teach each other the wiles of their ages. Maurice is a down-and-out actor who mainly plays dead or dying characters on TV programs (“Typecast again”). But he’s also a lover and a married man. Like many in the film industry, his relationship with his wife is distant; so distant, in fact, that he doesn’t live with her (his wife played by the esteemed and understated Vanessa Redgrave). To battle boredom, he and his friend Ian throw their many prescriptions on tables in a game to see who can find the greatest combination of pills that’ll numb them out. Enjoying the female body more than he should, Maurice entices Venus to go out with him. Being bored, she accepts.

Little does Maurice know, though, that this Venus is just as dangerous as the real goddess. Don’t mess with love! She learns that her new paramour is quick to lust and gradually taunts him with her desirables. Why she does this isn’t quite clear, but it appears to be a way to regain her composure she lost from a previously bad relationship (one that involved a pregnancy and her forceful mother).

Although the unusual nature of their relationship is one of the more interesting aspects, it is O’Toole who, even in his advanced age (74?), carries off the dirty old man persona with equal parts disgust and longing. Whittaker (Venus/Jessie) tries hard to keep up but fails often in believability. Her line delivery often falls flat or overly-dramatic. Rarely does she hit the middle of the road, which is where O’Toole lives and breathes.

That said, this isn’t a bad film to spend a night watching. It holds more interest than most movie rental dregs currently lining your Blockbuster store. And it’ll make you think about what awaits you in old age, be you a man or a woman.