Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Nancy Stokes doesn’t know good sex. Whatever it may be, Nancy, a retired schoolteacher, is pretty sure she has never had it, but she is determined to finally do something about that. She even has a plan: It involves an anonymous hotel room, and a young sex worker who calls himself Leo Grande.

  • Released: 2022-06-17
  • Runtime: 97 minutes
  • Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Stars: Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack, Isabella Laughland, Les Mabaleka, Lennie Beare, Carina Lopes, Charlotte Ware
  • Director: Sophie Hyde
 Comments
  • SnoopyStyle - 12 June 2024
    older lady younger man
    Retired widower teacher Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) has hired sex worker Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) for the night. She is hesistantly trying to break out of her conservative sexuality.

    For over an hour, this is a two person play inside a room. It's fascinating to see veteran Emma Thompson go to work. McCormack is doing a single tone for most of that time as a good calming presence. The middle does level out a bit. I was expecting a certain move and it does happen. It just doesn't happen in the way that I expected. McCormack takes it to the next level. I like the last act with a bit of fun.
  • marydm-43470 - 30 March 2024
    Icky as
    The young man is an astounding screen presence. Thompson needs no introduction or praises from me at this stage of her brilliant career.

    But why? Oh why?

    What were they all thinking? A woman in a long boring conventional marriage who's never pleasured herself? Yeah, pull the other one!

    What a self conscious, unrealistic, unnatural script! What a positively bonkers premise, that sexual fulfilment is to be had by way of a commercial transaction with a "sex worker" ( this has to be one of the most glorious misnomers for any paid work that the genius of the English language is capable of creating!)! And what an even more positively bonkers additional premise that some emotional attachment will be derived for both participants in said transaction!

    Interesting that the body language of both betrays an obvious awkwardness and unease that belie the supposed cleverness of the script. They're both clumsy as and unnatural all the way through to the much vaunted "climax"!

    Authenticity? Where?

    Reverse the sexes and you have a "me too" scenario lurking in the subtext. All the talk about no one exploiting anyone, all the "public service" suggestions, all the supposed breaking through boundaries etc result in one big fat icky mess of a movie.

    I tuned out mentally and emotionally at about 20 minutes into it but watched it to the bitter end to try and be fair in expressing an opinion. You can't have an opinion on something you've not actually seen.

    Despite my truckloads of goodwill towards the two actors and to cinema as a powerful medium of story telling I still feel the ick days later.