Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Emma Thompson lays herself bare in the dramedy "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande," but it's the emotional aspects that deserve the most attention, in this funny ...

"Leo Grande" could easily be jokey or overly sentimental, but the movie largely avoids those pitfalls. She peppers Leo with questions about how it all works logistically, while pushing for personal details that he only grudgingly provides. While he calmly seeks to reassure her, her biography gradually spills out, including the death of her husband two years earlier, and her unsatisfying sex life with him throughout their lives.

Emma Thompsons' Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, now streaming, is a tender story about connections and being compassionate to yourself.

With a third act rife with emotion and a decidedly satisfying commentary on female pleasure, this story about connection, acceptance and transformation offers far more than a mere May-December sex romp. As Leo slowly coaxes Nancy into engaging with him, their awkward hellos and polite conversation morph into a meeting of the minds and ultimately the body. Her portrayal offers a glimpse at what it takes to learn to be honest with yourself and accept your part in how life’s disappointed you. What follows is a masterful exchange full of restrained fury and brittle vulnerability from both McCormack and Thompson. Every sigh, twitch of the eye, bodily flinch and outstretched hand fraught with meaning. Leo Grande enters with a calm sensuality and woos Nancy slowly, turning this unlikely rendezvous into an appealing series of meet-ups full of witty repartee, uncomfortable truths and sexual delight. She longs to be touched and have the kinds of sexual adventures she’s heard about but never experienced; even though she’s given up on ever achieving orgasm.

Directed by Sophie Hyde and written by Katy Brand, the story follows an older woman, Nancy (Thompson), who hires a young male sex worker, Leo Grande (Daryl ...

“How much I would laugh about the genuine silliness of so many of our responses to sexual pleasure, and how much I would cry about what is lost in life when it is repressed, ignored, and punished. It’s a body; it’s her body. She sinks her hand lower and indulges in a moment of pleasure. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is hardly a typical Oscar-bait movie, but it’d be a shame if Thompson’s performance were overlooked in the upcoming award circuit. Then she steps in front of the hotel room mirror, and, with a decisive tug, pulls off her white bathrobe. “I don’t know if you’ve ever taken all your clothes off in front of a young person you don’t really know. It’s not a voyeuristic peep of her stepping out of the shower. After, she picks her scattered clothes up from her hotel room with a smile. Nancy later confesses to Leo that she’s always been ashamed of her body. He removes Nancy’s overshirt and forces herself to look at her bare arms, saying he wished she could see her own beauty. It’s the movie’s most powerful scene, and, indeed, in Thompson’s capable hands, it’s one of the best performances of the year. He’s comfortable with bodies, sex, and pleasure in a way that Nancy can’t even fathom.

It's a relief to see a film so frank about sex, and so open to sex's complexities, especially when so much of current cinema is sexless to a disheartening ...

"Leo Grande" has a light touch, and the dialogue is often hilarious, but depth is never sacrificed. It's a relief to see a film so frank about sex, and so open to sex's complexities, especially when so much of current cinema is sexless to a disheartening degree. Leo is not a cipher or a symbol. "The other night, that night I met you at the hotel, I was with a woman. For a while there, I didn't think I was gonna be able to do it. Considering these factors, "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" is extremely risky. I thought often of the haunting moment in " American Gigolo" when Julian ( Richard Gere) leans against the wall, naked, and opens up about what he does and why: A movie like "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande," a two-hander taking place mostly in a single location, only works if the two actors are charming. She's probably never said any of it out loud before, and the words tumble out of her mouth. The film is broken up into four separate "meetings," and each meeting has its own flow and rhythm, with jagged edges, reprieves and pauses, beautiful and funny moments, as these strangers get to know each other in what is a transparently transactional relationship. Without these hard-to-grasp yet essential qualities, "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande," about an uptight woman who hires a younger male sex worker, would have been a so-called sex-comedy, filled with pushed and inauthentic hi-jinx. Emma Thompson plays Nancy, retired and recently widowed, vividly unhappy, and at the limit of her ability to endure her own unhappiness.

The subsequent meetings happen in the same hotel room, and Nancy has now brought a list. It includes practicing oral sex on each other.

But Nancy is not a rule-breaker and making this list is as wild as she gets. She then lets her guard down and tells her that Leo is not there for a car, but she purchased him for sex. They pretend for the waitress, who is a former student of Nancy, she is buying a car for him. What happens here is not only a sexual awakening for Nancy. She has been feeling physical repression for decades. The more that Nancy reveals, the more comfortable she is getting. She has hired a sex worker named Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack). Nancy is as nervous as can be, and Leo senses it.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande gives a beautifully honest and raw look at intimacy with stellar performances by Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack.

In a time when society has made women’s bodies into a thing of politics, shying away from the discussion of sex, it’s enlightening to watch a film that embraces it and beautifully portrays what it means to finally love yourself. The topic of the female orgasm, sexual pleasure, and self-love is rarely talked about in mainstream films without it resorting to some raunchy rom-com where it is seen as a joke. Thompson doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to Nancy’s resentment of the life she’s lived – one filled with obligation, but never satisfaction.

"Good Luck To You, Leo Grande" director Sophie Hyde and writer Katy Brand spoke to Newsweek about their new enlightening Hulu movie.

Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack star in the movie Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, which is available to stream on Hulu now. This is the right way for the story to end'." "I think we've all kind of raised an eyebrow about the need for everyone to say how 'brave' it is. Brand said, "She is an artist, she put aside her personal concerns and trepidation and said, 'No, this is how the story has to end. Months later, the pandemic came along and allowed her time to finesse the script, and turn it into the story we see on screen today. It currently holds a 97 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences now have a chance to rate the movie for themselves as Good Luck To You, Leo Grande is available to watch on Hulu.