The complexities of female sexuality are still frustratingly misrepresented in mainstream cinema. In one corner, we have the eruptive rise of a certain type of one-dimensional badass feminism, featuring often straight, go-getting women who can win a fistfight, have it their way and enjoy great, consequence-free sex. On the other, there’s been a discernible decline in overall on-screen sexuality, with everything in popular film seemingly downgraded to PG-level eroticism. In both senses, women lose. How can our intricate sexual lives be accurately characterized if notions around female agency are still trapped in such limited, all-or-nothing packages?
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Sharply written by the multi-hyphenate English artist Katy Brand with flourishes of inventive humor, perceptive director Sophie Hyde’s bracingly sex-positive “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande” is a refreshing exception to typical depictions of female sexuality in mainstream film. While one could consider its lead character Nancy Stokes something of a badass — you’ll momentarily understand why — she has never quite been a go-getter; at least not in the bedroom. Played by a wonderful Emma Thompson with her signature deadpan Britishness, retired schoolteacher Nancy has done everything exactly the way it was expected in her generation: raising a “perfect” family and successfully concluding a dignifying career. And yet there’s one thing she’s never gotten around to: figuring out what pleasures her in the bedroom and discovering the mysteries of her own body. To spell it out even more bluntly: Nancy’s never had an orgasm. Now widowed and at an age when she has no fucks left to give but plenty of voids to fill, Nancy is determined to finally have good sex — and she isn’t afraid to go to lengths she would have once considered unthinkable to get it.
Enter Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack, impossibly warm and charismatic), a handsome sex worker Nancy hires and meets at a generic hotel room. Purposely costumed in a frumpy skirt-set (costume designer Sian Jenkins does such delicate work throughout), the thoughtful Nancy seems uncomfortable at the top of their first rendezvous. Is she a disappointment in the looks department? Is she exploiting Leo? Is she talking too much? Or not enough? Thankfully, Leo is a pro. Gently and cordially, the alluring young man alleviates the uptight Nancy’s worries ever so slightly. This is a scenario in which no one is being degraded, he clarifies. With mutual consent and boundaries — Leo has his own too, naturally — there is much fun to be had and various new joys to seize. And you better believe Nancy wants to try it all: doggie style, oral sex, you name it. Realistically, she indicates she isn’t expecting to have an orgasm all of a sudden; the experience seems to her more like an adventurous journey without a labeled destination. At least for the time being.
Nancy’s got a point there — why put so much pressure on herself and Leo when she can just feel her way through and savor these pricey meetings, particularly given that she clearly has more in mind than a simple wham-bam, thank you man? Along with her cinematographer Bryan Mason, Hyde gets this too. Through her considerate and textured frames, Nancy and Leo’s hotel suite somehow doesn’t look like the soulless space that it is. She brings visual dimension to the cookie-cutter room, making it feel soothing, buttery and appealing while alternating between sensual close-ups and airier wide set-ups. For anyone who’s seen Hyde’s sexy and feverishly druggy “Animals” — a brilliant Sundance 2019 premiere that never got a proper theatrical release in the U.S. but is available to stream — the filmmaker’s breezy style won’t come as a surprise. She brings much of that skill-set here in a different setting, giving us an intimate dance around sex and boundaries for the ages.
And it is indeed a lovely dance between the two — sometimes actually, sometimes metaphorically. Quickly growing more confident in her skin, Nancy shows up for her second session in a form-hugging pencil skirt, bringing with her a list of feedback on what has worked and what hasn’t. It’s disarming, even radical, to observe Nancy’s search for a connection within this framework. Gradually, both she and Leo start revealing themselves a little more, conversing and exploring each other under the guise of their fake names. It’s only when Nancy breaks a contractual boundary that things turn sour for the young Leo, who understandably refuses to mold himself to Nancy’s assumptions about and expectations of him. But these are smart people, and nothing is irreparable if there’s mutual respect between them — which we learn during a lovely scene of bonding that Hyde attentively directs in the hotel’s empty café.
The most groundbreaking thing that Hyde and Brand pull off with “Leo Grande” isn’t merely an honest depiction of female sexuality — although that alone would have been enough to make their film a triumph. Rather, the duo goes further and observes an aging woman while she studiously unlearns her long-held beliefs and constraints. “There is nothing even slightly controversial about my son,” Nancy laments early on in a touching (and unexpectedly funny) moment. The subtext is, there hasn’t really been anything even remotely provocative about her either. Over the course of the film, Nancy realizes it’s never too late to up the stakes and ask for what you want for once, shame-free. For her, coming to terms with this awareness means finally accepting and conversing with her own body, with all her earned wrinkles and curves, beautiful and cozily imperfect. This is ultimately what makes “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande” such a pleasure. And pleasure is a wonderful thing. [A]
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