Venus (2006)

This was the second movie I saw during our annual St. Louis pre-Oscar marathon and the one Gary chose to skip (wisely, it turns out). Because the window between Little Children and this film was just about an hour and our lunch ran late, I got into the theater just as the previews were beginning. I had the foresight to purchase my ticket before we ate, but was truly surprised to find the room packed. I wound up all the way on the right in the front row -- so that was already working against the film even before it began. Though, truthfully, I don't think even being in an empty theater smack dab in the center would've helped matters much.

Peter O'Toole plays Maurice, a theater veteran and bona fide "character" (we know this because he refers to himself as "old man" when he slaps himself out of bed in the morning and naughtily pools his pills with pals over coffee). I just looked it up and found that he's only 75 but he looks about 105 in the movie and about as ancient in real life -- unless he showed up to the Oscars in costume. One of his cronies is excited about the pending arrival of a young relative who he's expecting will cook and clean and make his life happier. What he gets instead is Jessie, a lazy taker, and he comes to his wits' end rather quickly. Maurice takes an immediate interest in the girl, though, and they form a sort of relationship.

There are some good things about the story, but they're all done in by the fact that we're constantly hit over the head with Maurice's pervy interests in the young girl. He's waking her up to the wider world, all the while wanting nothing more than to cop a feel or lick her hand. Some scenes are lovely but there's always the feeling that he's really just a horndog who'll do anything -- even show kindness and build self-esteem -- for a bone. It fully cheapened what could have been a sweet platonic love story. Taken altogether, the effect is just nasty.

D+