Good Luck To You Leo Grande
The sort of movie that sucks you in, and keeps your eyes glued to the screen for its full runtime.
Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) is a 55 year old widow. After a lifetime of being second-best in her household, she’s yearning for some love, acceptance, and most of all, some good sex. She hires Leo (Daryl McCormack), a male escort, to help her with her bucket list. As they work their way down the list, Leo helps Nancy open up and love herself. But when Nancy pries to heavily into Leo’s private life, secrets are spilled, and their bond is seemingly broken.
On the surface, this film might not be much; shot in largely one room, with pretty much just two characters, in many respects it may feel like an also-ran. Indeed, the opulent but also slightly too shiny hotel room imbues the whole movie with ‘Ibis Budget’ vibes, which is never a good thing. But these initial misgivings are trumped by a movie that focuses on script, character development and performance, and which is all the better for it.
Directed by Sophie Hyde, the movie uses with aplomb the not inconsiderable talents of Emma Thompson. She’s vulnerable, funny, witty, naive, understanding and absolutely engaging throughout the entire piece. She is also ably matched by her co-star, McCormack, whose initial cool, calm and collected performance gives way to a deep vulnerability and showy anger once some privacy boundaries are crossed. Together, they are a tour de force.
There’s something great about a movie that’s just happy to be what it is, and doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. This is a deeply introspective piece, musing on the roads not taken, and ultimately about love, acceptance (both of each other and of ourselves), and trust. Sure, there are moments when you long for something more, and indeed moments when the film gives into tempting cliche (the much discussed nudity in the final five minutes really added little to nothing to the piece, and would have been better stripped *pardon the pun*), but these don’t negate the fact that, for the most part, Good Luck To You Leo Grande is the sort of movie that sticks with you. They seldom make movies like this these days, but this film proves that they should.
