Good Luck To You, Leo Grande

Image credit: IMDb

While sex is something that certainly runs rampant in cinema, transcending every single genre, it’s funny how little conversation there is about it. Much like the real world, open conversations about sex are dangerously few – probably for a multitude of ridiculous reasons- and as a result there is so much ignorance regarding literally everything about it from the mechanics of the physical act to the social power dynamics that come with it.

As a medium that reaches so many people, cinema is the perfect megaphone through which to openly chat about sex and how it works (or sometimes doesn’t) and the nice thing about that is that the discussion does not have to be graphic or sexy. It can absolutely be tasteful and accessible, like the film that I curled up and watched this morning: Good Luck To You, Leo Grande.

Two years after the death of her husband, Nany Stokes (Emma Thompson) decides to try and regain some excitement of her youth before a bland marriage and children shaped the larger part of her life. She hires a sex worker named Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) in an attempt to find some adventure -and sex- but gets more than she imagined when the two start talking and she becomes a returning client, fascinated by Leo and his take on the social stigmas of sex, age, and beauty.

This is a lovely, bare-bones film that doesn’t rely on the bells and whistles of extravagant artistic design, special effects, or even long, drawn-out narratives. It’s an hour and a half of two people having conversations about subjects that are often hard to talk about. Over the course of four meetings, we learn about Nancy and Leo as characters, as well as hear important discussions and social commentary on the state of the world and the institutionalised, toxic methods of thinking that shape society. The film explores the social stigmas around the sex work industry, as well as sex in relation to age, gender, and what is socially acceptable as ‘sexy’.

The performances of both Thompson and McCormack are both wonderful: instantly intriguing and relatable. Nancy is an anxious and unhappy woman who transforms, through her curiosity and then fascination with Leo, into a satisfied and wider-minded person and Thompson superbly conveys a wealth of emotions with nothing more than quick, eloquent dialogue and long, unblinking glances. On the other side of the bed is Leo who is charming, patient, soothing, and very down-to-earth.

Image credit: Flicks

The one problem I did have with this movie was that it didn’t overtly discuss the sex work industry, which is a major plot point. While it certainly tries to refer to many of the struggles and problems that sex workers face both in their job and in society in general, it merely glosses over them and this hand-wavey attitude ends up becoming something of a problem when the dramatic incident of the third act comes into play. Without wanting to give too much away, there is a scene that depicts a breach of trust and social contract between the two. It’s committed innocently, with the guilty party not realising the potentially dangerous repercussions of their actions and what’s most annoying is that, rather than making the severity of the drama known, the film then turns it on to the injured party and goes in for a most awful cliché of social attitude towards sex workers. While there is some redemption within the last ten minutes, the way this dramatic turn was narratively handled really gave me the ick enough to lament that the film had been so good up until that point. While it’s a more accessible and less cliched depiction of sex workers, it’s certainly not the most enlightening.

But aside from this one big stumble, which did kind of feel like a condom snapping midway through and killing the mood for a bit, Good Luck To You, Leo Grande is a sweet and engaging film that I really did enjoy.

Director: Sophie Hyde, 2022

Cast: Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack, & Isabella Laughland