Review from my movie review blog:

Venus is a film that should have finally won Peter O’Toole the academy award for best actor (though I will confess I hadn’t seen any of the other films nominated for best actor but I don’t care, poor Peter has had the award stolen from him too many times.) It is a story about aging, about the difficulities of life, love, and temptation.

Maurice (Peter O’Toole) is a aged actor whose life has been reduced to playing corpses in soap operas and taking medication. However, when he meets Jessie, a relative of his friend Ian, he finds himself attracted to her. Initially, Jessie makes it very clear that she does not want to be in the company of two men who are practically decomposing. After Maurice gets a job for her however, Jessie begins to slowly ease into the idea of hanging around with an old coot. Maurice begins to fall in love with her (or is acutely sexually attracted, perhaps both) to the point of infatuation, buying her gifts, doing favors for her, and at times making very forward advances towards her. Throughout the entire movie, Jessie’s motives for allowing this almost sexual relationship are speculated.

Peter O’Toole was perfect for this role. He is suave, charming, and still has those bright blue eyes of his youth that seem to insinuate a young soul burning within him. Aesthetically, personally, vocally, he is simply perfect for it. Newcomer Jodie Whittaker doesn’t fail to deliever either. Having an unknown play her role was a brillant idea. We feel like we have known Maurice all our lives and Jessie is this stranger we are just getting to know, as Maurice is.

I recall reading a review that compared the relationship between Marice and Jessie to the relationship between Henry Higgins and Eliza Dolittle of My Fair Lady, which were my thoughts exactly while watching this film as well. Just make the Higgins/Dolittle relationship contemporary with some sexual tension and BOOM, there you go. Don’t let that scare you away though, it is still very different but there are some noteable parallels to be made.

Friendships, past loves, and current loves are scattered throughout this movie. Be prepared for tangled relationships but not to the point of the dramatic. It still is a comedy, but a deep one. It conveys the transedence of every kind of love and how the spirit of youth remains caged within people as they age. It has a great deal of true things to say about life, love, and the human mind. I recommend it to anyone.