Movie Review: Acting Sans Botox

"Venus"

Sadly, we have reached a point in our society where an altered physical reality has been deemed as normal. Women without lines on their forehead, men without jowls, and young women with boob implants that make them appear as moving mastheads on old clipper ships. Ahoy, matey, watch out for those wooden knockers, but don't expect her to laugh... her face is paralyzed from the botox!

"Venus," starring Peter O'Toole, newcomer Jodie Whitaker, veterans Leslie Phillips, Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Griffths is one of those movies that grows on you once the credits are done. Quickly paced, funny, sharply written and deftly acted, "Venus” unfolds so quickly that one is immersed in the action from the very start.

The setting is London, and two old actors live off small pensions and occasional acting jobs. The cinematography catches the dullness of the surroundings and one is easily transported into this world of sameness, peppered by occasional wonderful lapses back into the magic of acting and well written lines. The friendship between the two old men, Maurice and Ian, has its roots in theatre, a long time friendship and now, old age. They don't seem to laugh very much, mostly, they just get through their old age. Ian's young niece comes to stay. He expects she'll cook and clean. But she drives him crazy, eating all the food, drinking his liquor, going out late -- things he probably did in his youth, but has forgotten. Ian begs Maurice, "a scientist of the female heart" to take her about town.

O'Toole is wonderful as Maurice, the ex-raconteur fifty years her senior, who proves that love, lust, flirtation and marvel are attributes that don't go away with age. These are not qualities that are the exclusive domain of the young, no matter what they think. Maurice not so much falls in love with young Venus, as he does bask in the remembrance of what it was to fall in love, to have the companionship of a woman, and who likes the simple pleasures of taking someone out for a meal, going shopping, taking them through a museum, or putting one's feet in the sea.

Unlike so many other reviewers who are distressed over the actor's appearance, it's refreshing to see someone look his age. O'Toole doesn't suffer from the affliction of feeling he needs to offset his age (74) by dying his hair, injecting his face with collagen or botox, or sculpting his body a super-hero shape in an attempt to look as he did when he was 24. No, this is O'Toole with his age lines, a stumbling gait, and the complete mastery of the art of acting. O'Toole is the master of bringing zest and poignancy to the screen. Just listening to him quote a Shakespeare sonnet is worth it alone. The setting in which he does the recitation is both a surprise and moving.

Jodie Whitaker is indeed a fresh new face. Without airs, this actress expertly matches wits with O'Toole. She conveys the right amount of grittiness, insecurity and bravado as a young woman thrust into the big city without a concrete plan. The growth in her character takes place when an event that she has caused takes hurts Maurice, and she must either own up to what she has done, or forever be stuck in a life as a yob's girlfriend.

Vanessa Redgrave and all the others round out an honest cast that isn't afraid to let "Hollywood" see their age. This is acting "sans botox," and it is important to see. This is gutsy in a day when actors are expected to look a certain way even in old age. It's honest, and trounces all stereotypes about aging. And unlike Caryn James of the NY Times, I found no "ick factor" (as she put it) here with the physicality of O'Toole or any of the actors. Those who age well are the ones who accept it and don't let it limit them.

The writing is memorable with lines that are breathtaking in their insight and playfulness.
Maurice: "The most beautiful thing a man will see is the body of a naked woman."
Venus: "And a woman?"
Maurice: "Her first child."
The writer, Hanif Kureishi wrote against type. The lines, plot and pace are written well. O'Toole's character swoons, he drinks in the quixotic experience of remembering the beauty of a naked body, of kissing a woman's neck, of the total experience of falling in love, of pleasure, and of jealousy and of heartbreak as well. Young screenwriters should take note: write against type and delve into the real human experience, the one that everyone else tries to conveniently box away.

There were some choppy bits of editing. I would have liked to see even more growth and recognition in Maurice. Just a bit more from the writers would've brought it all the way home with the same aplomb given by O'Toole. But overall, "Venus" is a movie worth seeing, a performance worth rewarding.

But bravo! Well done. Applause for Mr. O'Toole. The glory is yours.

"He were gorgeous," says the waitress in Venus, as she looks at Maurice when he was younger. Peter O'Toole still is and is so much more. This Septugenarian ROCKS.