Though it might be a vehicle for one of cinema's
greatest actors, Venus as a whole is little more than
an average romantic comedy. Peter O'Toole is, as always, magnificent,
but the story and style of the film are hardly worthy to bear
his name. Not to say they are necessarily bad, but it takes
a masterpiece to live up to O'Toole.
Venus tells the quirky story of Maurice
(O'Toole) and Ian (Leslie Phillips), two elderly actors who
are still trying to come to terms with their age. This task
is made even harder when Ian's neice Jessie (Jodie Whittaker)
moves in with him to care and cook for him. Maurice quickly
becomes enamored with Jessie, who he renames Venus, and a strange
relationship develops between them.
The lecherous old man routine is not nearly as
charming as screenwriter Hanif Kureishi (whose "Buddha
of Suburbia" I loved) intended. This may be because the
love between Maurice and Jessie comes off as creepy more than
tender, and his fascination with her as a symbol of beauty or
love (hence the name Venus) is never established. Part of my
disconnect from these characters could come from how annoying
I found Jessie to be, either in her writing or the performance.
I might have had an easier time buying the whole premise had
I been less turned off by her on the whole.
On the other hand, the relationship between Ian
and Maurice is very well-done. Their struggles with their age
and impending deaths. The back-and-forth repartee between these
two are hilarious in a classically British way, an example of
dry humor at its best. At the same time, the film seems to teeter
on the edge of being two different films, and I think it would
be a much better work if it were either more about Venus, or
more about Ian and Maurice.
Venus is anything but a perfect film, with as many flaws
as there are candles on O'Toole and Phillips' combined birthday
cakes, but it has an endearing nougat center that makes it worth
its while. If only to hear O'Toole recite Shakespeare, and make
legend yet another screen persona, Venus shouldn't
be ignored. With someone as powerful as him heading the film,
almost any blunder can be forgiven.
