Venus
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Movie Reviews of Venus
Movie Review: Interrogating Eros, and Nothing Else
Summary: 2 Stars
This movie has some good moments.
But it is also wildly uneven in its tone.
Is it whimsical? Is it savage? What's going on here?
I think that the underlying problem is that the writer, who also wrote "My Beautiful Launderette", comes from the London milieu that he writes so well about. That world view takes for granted that all the "isms", all identifiable philosophical approaches to life, have been exhausted and proven not to work. Save perhaps a gentle absurdism and an interpretation of multiculturalism as all-leveling.
That leaves 2 hours of movie script to fill. So the writer has interrogated the theme of eros as a momentary connecting quality in a decentered universe, as he did with "My Beautiful Launderette". All of the characters in this movie are "lost" in reminiscence about the power, the connection, and the moment of eros. Maurice and Jessie even try to kindle a desperate version of it. "That's all there is" says Maurice.
Unfortunately for the writer, that turns out to be not such a gentle or benign observation. Almost against the writer's will, in a subconscious subtext, these characters are yearning for additional human value beyond the eros that the years have eclipsed. But the writer couldn't deliver it, because he obviously doesn't believe in it.
All the scenes portraying Jessie's friends and their club world flash by unexamined and uncared for. The writer sees no redeeming value there apparently.
The barbarity and cruelty of what Jessie and her boyfriend do to Maurice, both psychologically and physically is shocking and just turns the second half of the film against the first half. But it is also never interrogated by the writer. It just happens, leaving the viewer dumbfounded. The play-within-a-play where Maurice is filmed "playing a corpse" is materialized in the movie's universe and Maurice does in fact play a corpse at the end, sitting next to Jessie. The tone here is again sharply disturbing. No gentle fade on Maurice finally at rest by the sea -- the camera tilts him out of frame jarringly like so much garbage as Jessie panics and runs about yelling. The viewer shudders.
The fluffy redemption sequence at the end for Jessie seems tacked on like an afterthought. Who knows, perhaps the writer and director had planned to end on a down note with Maurice at the beach. It's a shocking conclusion after the warm first half of humor. That would have made a statement. But instead the production (the money people, perhaps) chose to "balance" the tone of the conclusion with the humor at the start. Too late though, for, as I have said, the film is already too wildly uneven.
But what allowed this loss of control, I think, is that the writer (and director) didn't have anything more to say after interrogating the sexuality, or the remembered sexuality, of its characters. Maurice and Jessie have a disjointed series of connection experiences, but after all she didn't learn any wisdom from him and betrayed him horribly. And he didn't have much wisdom to offer other than "sex is good". That's ok so far as it goes, but it is a severely limited perspective. His connection to his ex-wife is more an exposition of disconnectedness. They mention their children in a one line exchange about money, and done with it.
The writer missed an opportunity here to include an interrogation of the place of art in peoples' lives, particularly the aging actors and the young people coming up. Maurice and his friends never muse over past great performances they have seen, or given, as you would think aging actors might. Or they might discuss what the hell Shakespeare was doing when he had Hamlet address his step-father as "Mother", etc. Maurice takes Jessie to a play, but all Jessie can come up with is a weak "I could never do that." This is no "Educating Rita".
The writer might consider thinking more about the parent cultures in the London melting pot. I'm sure that there could be more interesting stories about Pakistani, Indian, Jewish, Irish, and English human values. Eros is a strong part of our individual and cultural experience. But it is not the sum total, except for old-guard partyers like Maurice (note the memorial reference to Robert Shaw) and new-guard partyers like Jessie and her boyfriend. "That's all there is" said Maurice. Wrong.
What's really disturbing about all this is the reception that "Venus" enjoys, as evidenced in the fellow reviews here. Sheesh! This film is not a celebration about human "possibilities". That it is so regarded is a very morbid testament to the fact that, sadly, this film got it right in many respects. That is, the multicultural landscape has already leveled human expectations to a near-zero; so much so that young people out there see this Chinese-corners version of the human heart as an uplifting statement.
Guess I'm in no rush to go clubbing in London!
Movie Review: Utterly REVOLTING
Summary: 2 Stars
I wonder at how so many viewers heap high praise upon Peter O'Toole for his role of Maurice Russell in "Venus". Depraved, dirty, and disgusting, the arthritic Maurice clings to anything that allows him to revel in his own decrepitude. Enter the slag-heap Jessie, his "Venus", and grand-niece of his closest friend, Ian.
Jessie is, if possible, even more despicable than Maurice. She mumbles incoherently in most scenes, a trait exacerbated only by her thick English-midlands accent; she also manages to masticate like a troll, food flying from her mouth every time she's attempting to feed. Maurice, who happens upon the trampy girl when she is shoved upon her unsuspecting uncle as a would-be caretaker, wastes no time plying her with booze and baubles.
He rhapsodizes about his fame and how utterly determined he is to pursue his own hedonistic code despite soon facing the grave. She takes advantage at every turn, landing a stint as an artists' model as the coup de grace of his favor.
A particularly horrific scene is where "Venus" offers Maurice a chance to bestow three osculations upon her bared shoulder. She does this throughout the movie, proffering tasteless little fondles as payment for jewelry, fine dining, etc. O'Toole's ghastly, grinning death's-head hovers for long moments next to the young female's nubile head -- and the resulting image is enough to have the viewer reach for the Mylanta.
Honestly -- this is hardly a triumphant or exultant film. In the end, Maurice, who has been soundly pummeled by Jessie's young man (whom she invites to visit at Maurice's home, at which point she tells the old man to take a hike [literally] so that she and the bloke can have a poke = so classy!), rapidly deteriorates (he's been managing to do so in nature's course throughout the film in any event) and drops dead at the seashore.
And a good riddance to bad rubbish.
Poor Vanessa Redgrave is underplayed in her portrayal of Mrs. Russell, Valerie, whom Maurice had abandoned decades before, replete with their three young children under age six. Why they've never properly divorced is confusing; why Valerie still entertains him, in the most civil and welcoming manner, is truly mystifying. She even shows immense grace at Maurice's funeral reception, when she offers to help the useless Jessie.
After having viewed this piece of cinematic trash I was elated that Peter O'Toole was, yet again, refused the honor of an Oscar win.
Movie Review: Venus-Peter O'Toole as a Dirty Old Man Out of Control
Summary: 2 Stars
I think I can be brief with this review as I don't wish to spend too much time or emotion over it. The story is a pathetic romp through the mud and I can't believe that O'Toole would permit himself to portray a dirty old man in heat.
Those of you who are long time fans of O'Toole would probably do well to avoid this film as I have been an admirer of his work for my entire life and felt badly for him after viewing it.
Those Amazon reviewers awarding 3 stars or less to this movie agree with me and I don't give a dam what Hollywood said about this film.
Movie Review: Peter O'Toole as The Perv
Summary: 2 Stars
I had heard rave reviews about this movie...why, I don't know. I sat through *almost* all of it (I think I missed the last 20 minutes or so but it was all I could take!). Wow, what an awful movie. Peter O'Toole plays a dirty old man who lusts after his buddy's young niece (she's young enough to be his granddaughter). The whole thing left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Yuck!
Movie Review: Very difficult to watch . . the best part was when it was over.
Summary: 1 Stars
Peter O'Toole and Vanessa Redgrave are far from youthful, but they are made up to look 15 years older than they really are. Why? Even in the moments that are supposed to portray some tenderness, all that one sees is old age, and attempts at tenderness become a disgusting farce.
Jesse is unabashedly common, with any redeeming features so well hidden as to be practically non-existent. She is so guilt-ridden after she and her boyfriend do their thing in Maurice's home, that any human being would have regrets. This was no particularly warm quality of hers coming to the fore.
All in all this was a very, very bad movie with gratuitous and stereotypical and juvenile portrayals of the elderly. Very difficult to watch . . the best part was when it was over.