Film review: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Daryl McCormack and Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Photo / Supplied

Good luck to you, Leo Grande (97 mins) (R) in cinemas now
Directed by Sophie Hyde
Reviewed by Jen Shieff

It's not often that a movie is so much fun. Almost every line of Good luck to you, Leo Grande contributes to a humorous moment, thanks to skilful directing by Sophie Hyde.

The very smart comedian Katy Brand wrote the excellent script, essentially a play for two people set in one hotel room.

All the humour doesn't make the film lightweight or frivolous however. It carefully deals with the burdens carried around by the two main characters, Nancy (Emma Thompson) and Leo (Daryl McCormack). It's their brilliant acting, their timing and their infectious pleasure in delivering their lines that make the film exceptional.

Somewhat surprisingly, but also quite believably, Nancy, a forthright woman in her late 50s, has let her husband, the only man she's ever been with, control everything, including what happened in their bedroom. Her sex life has always been unsatisfying, but she's put up with it.

Now widowed, Nancy has made a list of the sexual activities she wants to engage in, ideally in one afternoon. Leo, in his late 20s, whose services she's hired by the hour, is acutely aware of the barriers that need to be broken down first. Fasten your seatbelts.

Nancy isn't her real name. For a long time, she was a teacher of Religious Education, drumming morals into her students. How could she possibly use her real name now, when she may be about to fall into a moral vacuum herself?

It turns out that Nancy's conscience is only one of the obstacles Leo has to help her deal with. Others appear in the form of her self-consciousness, her waxing and waning lust and her daughter's calls from Barcelona.

Then things stall for a while, when Nancy loses sight of what her meetings with Leo are meant to be about, and pushes him over his professional boundary, into a place that isn't comfortable for him. Now it's up to Nancy to deal with Leo's issues, and she does. Their next encounters in the hotel room are about much more than ticking off Nancy's list.

Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Photo / Supplied

The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) comes to mind, but Emma Thompson's Nancy and Anne Bancroft's Mrs Robinson are poles apart. Sympathy in The Graduate goes in the main to Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock, in light of Mrs Robinson's predatory side, which seems to have become even stronger over time.

In Good luck to you, Leo Grande we sympathise equally with Nancy and Leo. Neither of them uses the other. Both of them are emotionally better off at the end and audiences will happily go with them on their fascinating whirlwind self-discovery trip.

Emma Thompson hasn't had an Academy Award for acting since Howards End in 1992, not even for Love Actually (2003) or The Children Act (2017). Odds-on, Nancy will deliver for her in 2023.

The first person to bring an image or hardcopy of this review to Starlight Cinema Taupo qualifies for a free ticket to Good luck to you, Leo Grande.

Must see.

Movies are rated: Avoid, Recommended, Highly recommended and Must see.