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| View Larger Image | Venus | DVDStarring: Peter O'Toole, Leslie Phillips, Beatrice Savoretti, Philip Fox, Lolita Chakrabarti
Directed By: Roger Michell
| List Price: | $19.99 | | Price: | $17.99 | | You Save: | $2.00 (10%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | DVD | | Rating: |  | | Run Time: | 95 minutes | | Format: | Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC | | Studio: | Miramax | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Aspect Ratio: | 1.85:1 | | Release Date: | May 22, 2007 | | Sales Rank: | 23,607rd |
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FEATURES | - Maurice and Ian are successful but aging actors, close friends whose conversation revolves around theatrical shop talk and the infirmities of septuagenarianism. Ian in particular is fearful that death is right around the corner, so he agrees to let his niece's daughter Jessie move in to his flat to care for him. Jessie, a provincial girl in her early twenties, turns out to be a nightmare for Ian,
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Description
Academy Award® nominee Peter O’Toole (2006 Best Actor) leads a powerful cast to deliver a charming and poignant portrayal of Maurice, an aging veteran actor who becomes absolutely taken with Jessie – the grandniece of his closest friend. When Maurice tries to soften the petulant and provincial young girl with the benefit of his wisdom and London culture, their give-and-take surprises both Maurice and Jessie as they discover what they don’t know about themselves. Featuring brilliant performances from a superb supporting cast, VENUS is a witty and wise celebration of how the greatest lessons in life can come from the most unlikely places. |
Amazon.com
Peter O'Toole adds another Great One to his list of indelible performances: as Maurice, a frail but defiantly horny London actor in his sunset, O'Toole lays bare his weathered face and sophisticated soul for a marvelous portrait of mortality. Maurice, who mostly hangs out counting pills and parsing obituaries with his fellow old-trouper Ian (Leslie Phillips), is roused to play Pygmalion one final time... not on stage, but in life, as Ian's gauche, callow niece (Jodie Whittaker) comes to live with her uncle. It would be very easy to turn this set-up into a heartwarming drama, but screenwriter Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette) has never been one to warm hearts. Unless it's on his own terms. As Maurice takes his Venus under his frail wing and imparts a few old-school instructions to this junk-culture lass, Kureishi and director Roger Michell hit just the right notes of clumsiness, grace, and regret. Everybody's good in the film; Jodie Whittaker does nicely by the task of creating a rather ordinary young woman, and Vanessa Redgrave turns up as Maurice's patient, long-suffering ex (about whom there is nothing ordinary). But it's O'Toole's show, and the grand old actor gives a performance without a hint of grandness, except where it might fit. When he sighs a valedictory, "There really isn't anything else," you know a life's experiences and mistakes are distilled in the wisdom. --Robert Horton |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 51 reviews)
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Very poignant by yippee1999 (New York, NY United States)  5 Stars
September 11, 2009
As a female, I often tire of the older man/younger woman stereotype that abounds in film. That said however, and even while some of the scenes in this film were a bit disturbing to watch, this story is very rich, and the relationship between the man/girl is not as black and white as you would initially think. As the movie unfolds you begin to see that their relationship has many nuances that even they themselves don't recognize at first.
I also liked the fact that we got to see older people interacting with each other as friends and as former lovers. Far too often when we see elderly people in film, it is a caricature of old folk. But the older characters in this film...you got to see them in all their "regularness"....really no different than people half their age....they have the same insecurities, still act much the same way they did in their younger years...the only difference is that they now are dealing with failing bodies and death.
By the end of the film, I just had a lump in my throat. Truly a very poignant, touching film!
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Kind of a weird movie! by Khaled Altaher (Riyadh, NA Saudi Arabia)  3 Stars
June 04, 2009
Two elderly actors, who have been friends for a very long time, are anxiously dealing with life and waiting for death. One of them has a niece whose daughter offered to come from the farmside to take care of him. He however discovers that she is a total nightmare and as a result he totally rejects her.
His friend on the other hand falls in love with her. She is 50 years younger than him and he still falls in love with her and wants her so badly, sometimes in many sick ways. She couldn't accept him at first but later when she became the cause of his serious injury, she dedicated her life to him until he died.
The story is kind of sick! I mean what kind of an 80 year old guy would fall in love and have these kinds of instincts towards a 20 year old girl. I believe the kind of a sick minded!
At the end of the movie you just learn from it that even older men are not totally safe and are still capable of harassing young women!
The movie was kind of slow and at many times boring too.
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Quirky, Funny, and touching... by Benjamin J Burgraff (Las Vegas)  4 Stars
April 30, 2009
It isn't difficult to summarize a film with an elderly lead; they nearly always detail a failing body and mind, ending in a sad but inevitable death. It is to the credit of director Roger Mitchell, writer Hanif Kureishi, and especially stars Peter O'Toole, Leslie Phillips, and Vanessa Redgrave, that "Venus" is a little treasure, embracing the ravages of age and vaguries of love, both physically and spiritually, with a nearly 'gallows' humor that is irresistable.
Director Mitchell, with tongue in cheek, has described the film as "Dirty old man falls for sluttish girl", but the May/December relationship between newcomer Jodie Whittaker and O'Toole has a poignancy reminiscent of Burt Lancaster's unrequited pursuit of Susan Sarandon in "Atlantic City"; she teases him, then backs away, and his longing combines the frustrations of old age with the bittersweet memories of the Lothario he once was. As O'Toole's character is a respected stage and screen actor in his waning years, it isn't difficult to imagine these moments having special meaning for him (fortunately, O'Toole is in very good health!) Eventually, the kinkiness of the pair's relationship blossoms into something sweeter and more enduring, tempered by a tragedy, and quite moving.
Yes, the film does end the way you'd expect it to, but in a small way, what the pair shared together improves the lives of the people around them, and the girl can face the future with a confidence he nurtured in her. Old age and death may be a 'damned nuisance', but O'Toole reminds us that the human heart is ageless...
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One of the Most Amazing Movies Ever by Christell (Pennsylvania, USA) 5 Stars
November 29, 2008
I fell in love with this film immediately. It is one of the most touching and powerful films I have ever had the pleasure to watch. Other than the impeccable performance of the cast, this film offers a sense of timelessness to its viewers because it focuses upon the relationship between Jessie and Maurice, who are at opposite ends of the human life spectrum. Regardless of the age difference, they offer each other a unique type of companionship and love in the end. It is a film that is sad yet beautiful because it portrays both characters as being capable of both selflessness and selfishness in the end. It mantains its reality which is refreshing for a film of this millenium. I personally enjoyed it and it is, as I said, one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen.
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Life Affirming by Morten Lokkegaard (Copenhagen, Denmark) 4 Stars
November 02, 2008
What a beautiful little film. Peter O' Tools character, Maurice, is so full of life despite his rather frail appearance and as excentric as one would imagine O' Toll himself to be.
For anyone concerned with growing old and eventually dying this movie provides some light at the end of the tunnel.
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