An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Roger Michell.
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Jodie Whittaker, Leslie Phillips, Richard Griffiths, Vanessa Redgrave
Description: Veteran actors Maurice and Ian are revelling in their retirement, enjoying heated conversations down the local caf¿ with their friend. The men's gentle routine is interrupted by the arrival of Ian's grand-niece Jessie, who drives poor Ian to despair. However, Maurice is quite taken with the bright, bolshy youngster and a tender friendship is forged as these two unlikely companions enjoy the sights of London on increasingly frequent day trips.
Country: UK. 2006. 94mins
Object of desire: Jodie Whittaker fends off a lusty Peter O'Toole
Any film with Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips as two eccentric stage veterans, old friends who josh each other in semi-retirement, ought to have a modicum of entertainment in it.
And Roger Michell and Hanif Kureishi's comedy about the awkward late autumn of life, when you can't do what you'd like to and don't much like doing what you can, certainly has that.
Exclusive video: The Venus premiere
Exclusive video: Interviews with the cast on location
O'Toole and Phillips know exactly how to make the most of good lines and how to mask lesser dialogue.
Both are excellent in completely different ways, with a now slightly sepulchral-looking O'Toole managing to be funny, pathetic and even rather noble. If he finally wins an Oscar, he will deserve the accolade as much for his career as this.
It isn't their fault that this curious mixture of sentimentality and sharpness ends up seeming more than a trifle glib.
It's partly because, in aiming for something deeper than facile and rather patronising laughs at aged impotence and cantankerousness, the writing and direction don't quite hit the mark.
The arrival from the provinces of Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), Phillips's pretty grand-niece, who proves hopeless at looking after him, prompts him to scream, but O'Toole takes a lustier view of the girl.
He sets out to show her the cultural sights of London and, in doing so, grows fond of rather more than her innocent nature.
She allows him a few liberties but gives him a good dig in the ribs if he starts to grope. She does, however, put her finger in her genitals and allow him to sniff the result, which is just about the most tasteless scene in a film trying to be honest but not always succeeding.
Vanessa Redgrave plays his presumably estranged wife with the straightest of bats throughout as O'Toole falls deeper and deeper before realising that he can't and shouldn't win this particular game of love, particularly when he sees a young man hovering in the girl's bedroom.
The film slides around in this emotional and sexual morass until it finally comes to rest as the Grim Reaper beckons and the girl learns that O'Toole has taught her a bit about life.
But even performances as good as these, and one would certainly include Whittaker as well as the two better-known stars, can't totally transcend material that hovers between near farce and tragi-comedy without ever landing on a convincing level.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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If you think this film is about a pervy old man, you have missed the point. It's far more about how real love trancends any physical need for sex. There's no sex to speak of in this film, and I found it heartwarming and sad in equal measure. But then I'm 56,and well on my way to being an old man!
Maurice, the character played by Peter O Toole, is such an interesting person that anyone, of either sex or any age would like to spend time hanging out with him, so I didn't find it at all preposterous that the young girl was interested in his company. He's an old charmer, who has obviously spent his whole life charming various women, and this is just his last throw of the dice.
A beautiful, heartwarming film with a central truth to it that some will find uncomfortable.
- Sev, Brighton, England
How I wish I'd never bothered to see this film... it made it totally uncomfortable, smacked of paedophllia and left me with no sympathy whatsoever with the characters.
Full of unnecessary and gratuitous language (sometimes meant in the literal sense)... the script left me cold and nothing seemed to ring true about it. Why would a young girl have the least bit of interest in a dirty old man who was obviously only after one thing? Why is she so "common" when her great uncle is clearly an educated man? Why was she so prepared to give up her time in the first place to look after him when she clearly had no interest in the task from the beginning (and was obviously in no way capable)?
OK, the performances by O'Toole, Whittaker and Phillips were reasonable, but funny? I don't think so.
Don't bother going to see this film if you're uncomfortable with swearing (by geriatrics in particular) and dirty old men.
- Mimi, Derby, UK
You can imagine Peter O'Toole's reaction when his agent called:
"Pete, baby. Have I got a role for you. You play a dirty old man who canoodles with a foxy young northern lass who's all legs and pelmet mini skirts! And you might get a gong! Whaddaya say?"
"Hmmm. I'll have to give this some thought..."
What seemed from the trailer to be a generation-skipping, genteel love story isn't really that at all.
Peter O'Toole does a terrific job (so do Leslie Phillips and Jodie Whittaker), but his role treads a VERY fine line between the tragically charming and downright pervy.
Don't go expecting a heart-warm.
(A party of pensioners were in the cinema, no doubt remembering that nice young man who played LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Wonder what they think now?)
- John Donnelly, London, England
Morning:
13°c
