Exploring sex and sexuality through ‘Good luck to you, Leo Grande’
This article first appeared in the September 2022 edition of the journal Comet.
I certainly wasn’t planning to follow my review of Elvis with another film review, but I’ve just seen Good luck to you, Leo Grande, and I do have to report that it is well worth seeing, in a much happier and very different way to Elvis. As a professional reviewer, Sheila O’Malley of the Roger Ebert website presumably has to keep something in reserve, and so she described Good luck…. as “an almost perfect movie”. As an amateur, I would have deleted the “almost”. This is a film that is perfect in so many ways. Here are at least some of them (fear not, there are no spoilers).
So, as has been widely publicised with the promotional visit to Australia of its UK stars Emma Thompson (as the older widow Nancy) and Daryl McCormack (as the young sex worker Leo), this film is literally all about sex, and sexuality, from the perspectives of both its older and its younger participants. Young people, in general, try not to think about older people having sex (way too gross), and many older people worry about their changing bodies and the impact of that on continuing (or starting) a satisfying sexual life.
In this film, while Nancy has all of those fears, Leo has none of the negativity. He is the perfect person to open an anxious and depressed widow – gradually – to the joys not only of sex, but also of accepting and even appreciating her 68-year-old body.
Both of the actors have heaped praise on the Australian director Sophie Hyde – to the point where their promotional trip all the way from the UK was to show their respect for the way in which she has created a mood that is engrossing and real without being smutty or crass. And this has been done in a way that would translate (and probably will be some time in the future) into a perfect stage play, with almost all of it being filmed in a single hotel bedroom, without this feeling in any way claustrophobic.
I cannot praise Emma Thompson highly enough for – yet again – inhabiting her role in the most naturalistic way possible: uptight, unglamorous, and gradually finding herself able to relax into who she could be, without any sort of a Hollywood-style make-over. As for Daryl McCormack, he is undeniably a fine figure of a man, but it is the warmth of his personality that manages to break the ice around Nancy’s inhibited sexuality. Oops – sorry, that was a bit of a give-away. But not really a spoiler as the whole promotion of the movie makes that a given. And the last quarter of the film goes into completely unexpected directions that send this film way up the scale beyond one that is just about a series of sexual encounters.
Last but definitely not least, here is a film that not only explores sex physically, but talks about it in frank ways that might encourage some viewers to become equally courageous about exploring their own sexuality, in ways that suit them.
Altogether quite a unique film that is worth checking out.
Anne Ring 2022©