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‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’ Review: Pleasure Principles

Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack bring knowing vulnerability to this amusing story of a foxy prostitute and the woman who hires him.

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By Lisa Kennedy

If “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” were a book, it might make a fine choice for a tipsy book club evening. And although the film about an older woman hiring a male prostitute feels ever so briefly like an updated tease of romance-novel fantasies, as directed by Sophie Hyde and written by Katy Brand, “Leo Grande” proves to be a tart and tender probe into sex and intimacy, power dynamics and human connection.

The actors Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack find and then build steadily on the appealing and complex chemistry of their characters as this two-hander unfolds in a mildly posh, yet nondescript hotel room. The film starts with the satiny handsome Leo walking down a street with greet-the-day ease; he’s a professional getting into character. He knocks on the door of a hotel room where Nancy Stokes awaits. She has secured his services, but is still nervous about that decision. Upon Leo’s arrival, Nancy begins nattering — a lot. She has cause to: She’s a retired schoolteacher and widow; and she’s never done anything remotely like this. And by “this” we mean take her own pleasure seriously.

Leo is a sex-positive, 20-something from Ireland. His familial ties are frayed, and Nancy tugs on those threads out of interest, out of guilt, but also to reassert control when she feels exposed. Issues of class figure into her judgments; but the movie feels oddly mum about race. (McCormack is biracial.)

While Nancy might not be limber enough for every sexual position on her check list (for which she dons reading glasses to consult), Thompson is terrifically agile with the script’s zingers and revelations. A relative newcomer, McCormack moves between wit, compassion and vulnerability with grace. In the most transactional sense, Nancy gets even better than what she paid for. Thanks to Thompson and McCormack’s delicate dance, so will audiences.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Rated R for sexual content, nudity and some blue language. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Hulu.

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Good Luck to You, Leo Grande review: Emma Thompson finds more than sex in tender, taboo-breaking dramedy

Thompson's retired widow hires a male escort, then gets more than she bargained for in the charming Sundance breakout Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.

Leah Greenblatt is the critic at large at Entertainment Weekly , covering movies, music, books, and theater. She is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and has been writing for EW since 2004.

Insisting that a film about hiring a male escort is actually about intimacy sounds like some kind of reverse Pretty Woman fantasy. And Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (on Hulu June 17) seems at first like it might be another, more familiar kind of movie: How Emma Got Her Groove Back . But Sophie Hyde's two-handed chamber piece turns out to be bolder and sweeter and less predictable than that: a tender coming-of-late-middle-age drama with a quietly radical idea of self-acceptance at its center.

Emma Thompson stars as Nancy Stokes, a sensible-looking widow who decides, after a passionless 31-year marriage, to finally find out what all the fuss is about by hiring a young Irishman who calls himself Leo Grande ( The Wheel of Time 's Daryl McCormack) to do the job professionally. When he shows up to her tastefully generic hotel room, Leo seems like the full package: a golden-skinned Adonis who gently deflects her steady stream of neuroses and breezily uses words like "empirically." (That last bit especially is catnip to Nancy, a retired teacher).

He may be an expert, but she makes it clear he shouldn't get his hopes up; she's gone a whole lifetime without an orgasm, and two hours with a handsome stranger won't change that. But she would like before she dies to feel the touch of a man who does things differently, which doesn't sound hard: For three decades, her late husband's lovemaking had all the intensity and eroticism of an oil change. To attempt to fix that, though, Leo will first have to break down an emotional wall so well constructed that even as he's trying to kiss her neck, Nancy can't seem to stop piling on the bricks.

If she didn't, there wouldn't be much of a movie. And the consummations that follow in several separate sessions happen tastefully off-screen, at least initially — secondary to the long, looping conversations that become their foreplay. She admits that she might not crazy about her grown son ("boring") and daughter (flighty, bohemian, always in a crisis); he allows her to grill him on his education and upbringing (his mother believes he works on an oil rig). But Hyde (who made 2020's great, underseen Animals ) and writer Katy Brand have a longer game in mind beyond Nancy's big O.

McCormack's Leo may be entirely too dreamy to believably be bookable by the hour (if a show like Bridgerton doesn't immediately pick him up, they're crazy), but he's remarkably winning in the role, bringing layers that belie his character's early, easy charm: when Nancy, drunk on her new empowerment, crosses a line, he reclaims his time with a hurt and fury that shocks her. And Thompson is, unsurprisingly, a force: alternately brittle and vulnerable and mordantly witty, her whole body vibrating with a lifetime's worth of sublimated desire. When she stands exposed and alone in front of a mirror in the movie's already-much-discussed final shot , it feels less like a prurient shock than it should, maybe, to see the two-time Oscar winner this way: Imagine the small miracle of allowing a 62-year-old woman to gaze at her full, unadulterated self on screen, and like what she sees. Grade: B+

Follow EW's ongoing coverage out of Sundance here.

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• <i>Good Luck To You, Leo Grande</i> Is the Perfect Movie For Anyone Who Feels Invisible

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande Is the Perfect Movie For Anyone Who Feels Invisible

O lder women’s bodies, not to mention their sexuality, are something no one wants to think or talk about, least of all older women themselves. What everyone tells you when you’re young eventually becomes true: at a certain age—maybe 50, maybe 60—you become invisible to most other people on the street, especially men. But at that point, you may find, it’s other women your age and older who look at you more. We look to see what others are doing with their hair, how they’re dealing with the post-middle-age tummy situation, what colors they choose now that some of the old favorites no longer suit. In my experience, it’s less like competition and more like camaraderie. We’re all being not looked at, together.

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande —from Australian director Sophie Hyde, with a script by Katy Brand—is the first great movie, in a long time, for the invisibles. Emma Thompson plays Nancy Stokes, a 55-year-old widow whose sex life did the trick for her in the conceiving-children department—she has two, now grown—but which has otherwise been distinctly routine and unsatisfactory. And so she has hired a sex worker, a handsome charmer named Leo (Daryl McCormack, from Peaky Blinders ), to see if he might help her find whatever has been missing, if it’s findable at all.

When Leo comes to the hotel room she’s rented, they spend a great deal of time talking—or, rather, Leo, one of those people who has a gift for putting others at ease, tries to tease her out of her fluttery nervousness, which carries more than a whiff of judgment about Leo himself. She asks him if his mother knows what he does for a living, a subject he clearly doesn’t want to talk about. She wants to know if he’s a damaged runaway with a hard-luck story. In this misguided way, she seems to be assuaging her own guilt and shame. It takes nearly forever, but Leo finally makes her see that social-working her way toward an orgasm is not going to work.

The first visit, or at least as much as we see of it, ends with a kiss. But there are second and third visits, during which Nancy slowly lets down her guard while Leo does all the work of loosening her grip on her own self-degrading ideas about her looks, her aging body, her life. They spend time in bed—there’s sex in Leo Grande, I think, or maybe it’s really just more the suggestion of sex. In any event, the movie is sexy, not least because it revels in the idea that great sex comes from a connection that goes beyond what’s merely physical—and this can be true, of course, even when the sex is paid for. Leo loves what he does, and he’s good at it, because he likes talking to women and finding out what they want and need. Nancy is the one who tries to hang onto her shame and projects it onto him, almost to the point where he gives up on her. His patience in bed is infinite, but when Nancy crosses a line into his private life, we too suddenly see him as a human being with certain fragilities, in addition to being a gorgeous companion for hire, a person adept at playing different roles to please different people.

Read more reviews by Stephanie Zacharek

Hyde and Brand tackle all of these delicate ideas with agility and humor, and the repartee—including the arguments—between Nancy and Leo feel lived in, like rumpled sheets. McCormack is wonderful, playing a guy who’s confident in his own beauty without being a jerk about it. There’s a fantastic moment when, on his way to meet Nancy for the first time, he stops to check his reflection in a shop window, straightening his coat with a look that tells us he knows how fine he is.

But the trick is that as much as he likes the way he looks, he’s still more interested in looking at others. And when his gaze falls on Nancy, she can hardly find joy in it. When we first see her, she’s entering that hotel room in a dowdy skirt, with prim shoes that don’t help (she’s a former religious-ed teacher, and she dresses like it.) She changes into a pair of suede kitten heels—much better. And after Leo arrives, she gets up the courage to slip into the bathroom to change into a slinky peignoir ensemble—having forgotten, of course, to remove the price tag under her armpit, as Leo later discovers, teasing her about it.

Thompson has always been a terrific actor , but she reaches a new plane here, a place where her vulnerability as a person and her confidence as a performer mesh into something glorious. She’s unafraid to explore Nancy’s prickliness—some of the things she says to Leo are simply awful, betraying a deep judgmental streak. The film is beautifully shot—never has hotel-room light looked so meltingly sensual and luxurious. And that serves Thompson well, too. She’s gorgeous to look at, not because she has no wrinkles (she does), but because her skin is so luminous. Every wrinkle-obsessed 20- or 30-year-old needs to see Good Luck To You, Leo Grande to unlock an essential secret before it’s too late: you can have a dull, expressionless face with zero wrinkles, but great skin plus wrinkles is actually a fabulous look.

The movie’s most exhilarating moment comes at the very end, a moment in which Nancy surveys herself in the mirror, almost fully nude. We see everything she does—the sagging skin around the stomach, the breasts that have given up trying to defy gravity. Thompson, who is 63, has talked about this scene in interviews , stressing how difficult it was for her, a woman who has always been unhappy about her body, to bare all in this way. But she must know—or let’s hope she knows—that the look on her face, on Nancy’s face, as she surveys and at last makes peace with this weathered landscape of a body, is like the click of a light switch. To spend even a moment being miserable in our skin, as we all are at times, is to disrespect how far it has taken us. We know that in our hearts, but Thompson puts the truth right out there, for everyone to see.

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‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’ Review: Emma Thompson Gets in Touch With Her Sensual Side in a Gripping Two-Hander

Seduction is the focus of this riveting conversation piece in which Emma Thompson's buttoned-up teacher hires — and rejects — a male sex worker.

By Amy Nicholson

Amy Nicholson

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In the opening sequence of Sophie Hyde ’s riveting “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” a suave young man ( Daryl McCormack ) steps out of an ice cream parlor, catches a mint candy in his mouth, and swings around a street pole like a hipster Gene Kelly. The Irishman is confidently cool — and not quite himself. He’s getting into character as Leo Grande, a charming sex worker who sells the Leo Grande Fantasy: a “service,” he calls it, where he gives paying customers exactly what they need, be it physical release, conversation or, for one client, dressing like a cat. But Katy Brand’s screenplay is only focused on Leo’s interactions with one customer: Nancy ( Emma Thompson ), a widowed religious studies teacher pacing a blandly attractive hotel room, panicked that she’s made a mistake. What’s her fantasy, Leo asks. Nancy chokes on her own desires. “To have sex? Tonight? With you ? Do you mind ?”

The set-up of this intimate talkie sounds like middle-aged wish fulfillment — “How Teach Got Her Groove Back” — with Nancy checking off her handwritten list of erotic firsts courtesy of a kind and generous twenty-something she calls a “sexual saint.” (She even pinches Leo’s arm to prove he’s real.) But Hyde’s insight is that Leo isn’t real. He’s a performance, a put-on, an actor of sorts conscientiously projecting sensitivity and patience while nervous Nancy peppers him with questions. Does he feel demeaned? Does he use Viagra? Is he a trafficked orphan? What’s the oldest woman he’s had sex with? Why is he doing this? What does his mother think? The first three answers are no, no and no. The others, Leo parries with deflections, candor or lies. Like a therapist, he tries to figure out what response Nancy needs to hear. And he’s not always correct. When he suggests roleplaying sexy teacher and naughty student, Nancy gags.

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Hyde’s film is a psychological conversation piece titillated by the potential of sex. (There isn’t much onscreen until it ends with a graphic montage that feels included to prove Thompson’s faith in the project.) Over Nancy and Leo’s sessions together, they fall into a pattern: He struggles to set the mood, and she smashes it. But while Thompson’s character does most of the talking, in the moments she excuses herself to hide in the bathroom, Bryan Mason’s camera prefers to stay with him. Leo lets his smile go slack. He studies himself in the mirror. And then when his client reemerges, he snaps back into character. Leo Grande is fake. But the work it takes to be Leo Grande is genuine.

Thompson’s neurotic is alternately sympathetic and aggravating. Her Nancy tips over into comedy — there’s a negligee gag that’s played for an easy laugh — and the score can get overly playful, as though it, too, is anxious to put the audience at ease. Yet, Nancy’s lust is never the joke. Thompson commits to revealing the full woman, quite literally. While the film finds it tragic that Nancy is so uncomfortable in her own skin, she’s also condescending to waiters, priggish about her female students’ mini-skirts, and ashamed of her own adult children — one for having too much fun, the other for not having enough. She’s unsatisfied by her entire life, and she’s in part to blame. And despite her snobbery, she’s also not rich enough to pay for Leo indefinitely. That adds to the tension when she presents him with a list of five positions she claims she’s eager to try and instructs him to get on with it, even though her body language says otherwise.

McCormack is fantastic in a role so subtle it could appear flatlined and phony if people aren’t paying attention. He’s forced to keep his voice as steady as a horse tamer; the energy flows through his eyes. His Leo stares at Nancy, absorbs her, and through his rapt attention silently tries to convince her that to him, in this moment, she’s the only woman in the world. Steve Fanagan’s sound design casts a similar spell. Once Leo enters the hotel, the film never leaves. We become hyper-aware of the sound of socks on carpet and hands rustling over shirt collars and hair. Leo and Nancy’s hotel room begins to feel like sacred ground. (Composer Stephen Rennicks isn’t above adding music that harkens to a religious choir). “There are nuns out there with more sexual experience than me,” Nancy quips. Yes, but here, pleasure is both sacred and practical, a wobbly balance that seduces the audience, too.

Reviewed at Rodeo Screening Room, Los Angeles, Jan. 18, 2022. In Sundance Film Festival (Premieres). Running time: 97 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.) A Searchlight Pictures release of an Align presentation of a Genesius Pictures production. (World sales: Cornerstone, London.) Producers: Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski. Executive producers: Katy Brand, Sophie Hyde, Alison Thompson, Mark Gooder, Julian Gleek, Martin Metz, Nessa McGill, Nadia Khamlichi.
• Crew: Director: Sophie Hyde. Screenplay: Katy Brand. Camera, editor: Bryan Mason. Music: Stephen Rennicks.
• With: Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack.

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Emma thompson in ‘good luck to you, leo grande’: film review | sundance 2022.

The actress stars as a repressed widow who hires a sex worker to help her discover what all the fuss over orgasms is about in director Sophie Hyde's comedy-drama.

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

Contributing Film Critic

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Intimate in every sense, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande represents an affirming, immensely likable British comedy-drama. Admittedly, it’s more issue- than character-driven, like a hip advice-column story but with tracking shots. But that didacticism works given that it features Emma Thompson as a prim, widowed, high-school religious studies teacher who hires Daryl McCormack ‘s sex worker for a date, hoping to have an orgasm for the first time ever.

Naturally, the course of true pleasure n’er runs smooth, but along the way this lean, sensitively performed two-hander, written by British comedian Katy Brand and directed by Australian Sophie Hyde ( Animals , 52 Tuesdays ), builds up a refreshingly sex-positive portrait of a client-escort relationship, but with a female customer for a change. Although older female viewers would seem to be Leo ‘s obvious target, other demographics would also get into its groove. Theatrical returns might be modest, but online it will gush streams like a river in springtime.

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Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres) Cast: Daryl McCormack, Emma Thompson, Isabella Laughland Director: Sophie Hyde Screenwriter: Katy Brand

Although shot in a just-glimpsed Norwich, Norfolk, about a hundred miles from London, the town isn’t named and the story could be taking place in just about any hotel room in the U.K., or at least in any town big enough to have male escorts working discreetly in the area. In fact, the action is so confined to one location, you would almost think Brand had written this as a stage play originally. (Indeed, if this works as a film feature, maybe it will transition as a theater work someday.)

In a plush but anonymous hotel suite with a nice city view and a fully stocked mini bar, Dublin-accented escort Leo Grande (McCormack, from Peaky Blinders ) arrives to meet Nancy Stokes. (She is played by Thompson, who, although she’s always worked quite steadily, is having a bit of a moment lately on screen with meatier than usual roles, for example in Late Night or the superb six-part BBC/HBO series Years & Years .)

Nancy lost her husband two years ago, and he was the only man she’d ever had sex with. Now she wants some professional help to see if she can finally experience a real orgasm, having always faked it. Moreover, she’d like to try some other kinds of sex (oral, both giving and receiving, and then both at the same time) and positions (doggy?) that her late husband was never interested in attempting and she was too shy to insist on.

Silkily confident Leo — who not only has the frictionless bedside manner of a Harley Street therapist but is also clearly intelligent and educated judging by his use of words like “empirically” — isn’t fazed by the prospect of meeting all those requests. Nor, he insists, does he need any little blue pills to help him perform since he insists he finds Nancy very attractive.

Excessively critical of her own body — like so many women, especially post-menopausal women — she refuses to believe him. And yet over the course of several meetings weeks apart, Nancy comes to accept him at his word and learn to enjoy not only Leo’s body but her own as well.

Viewers who might assume that this is heading in the direction of a gender-flipped Pretty Woman are in for a refreshing surprise. No — spoiler alert! — Leo and Nancy are not going to fall in love, but they are going to develop a bond and an abiding respect for one another. Breaking down Nancy’s (and, by extension, the audience’s) assumptions, Leo (and, by extension, the filmmakers, who interviewed real-life sex workers for research) concedes that sex work can be dangerous and that there is a dark side to the profession. But like many of his colleagues, Leo honestly enjoys what he does, and takes pride in his well-honed skills. Not only is he good with people and deeply empathic, he’s able to find something beautiful and arousing in any client, even an 82-year-old woman he discreetly tells Nancy about.

Nevertheless, as with any professional therapist, he has strict boundaries, and Nancy finds herself violating them when she does a bit of internet stalking and works out Leo’s real name. (Both of them admit early on that they’re using pseudonyms.)  Furious, he leaves immediately but comes back only to look for his mislaid cellphone, giving Nancy a chance to apologize. Eventually, they trust each other enough to open up more, and Leo can explain why he’s estranged from his mother, who thinks he works on the North Sea oil rigs, while Nancy can rethink her own prejudices and past positions.

That the film has to work toward this kind of revelation in order to create a dramatic arc feels like a minor disservice to the professional relationship, one seldom explored honestly in film, that’s at the story’s core. One could imagine that the cast and filmmakers might have even considered going down a another route and showing Leo and Nancy having un-faked sex — a move not without precedent in arthouse film — although of course that would have made for a very different product.

Instead, every time Leo and Nancy finally finish talking and get down to business, the camera discreetly wanders away and leaves them to it. However, it’s clear from the subsequent dialogue how much these transactions have affected both of them, especially Nancy.

One crucial shot looks on as Nancy finally, finally ! has her first orgasm, and somehow Thompson manages to even flush red as if she’s not even acting. Minutes later she stands before a full length mirror, entirely naked and brightly lit enough to show every stretch mark and cellulite bump, and it’s possible she’s never looked sexier and more alluring in her whole career. Some viewers might find it a little hard to buy Thompson as a mousy, repressed schoolteacher in the film’s early reels, but by the end she’s so endearing she’s impossible to resist.

With his work cut out holding his own against such a force, McCormack holds his own very admirably. Indeed, the camera loves him, and the way director Hyde and her regular cinematographer-editor Bryan Mason film him, especially holding close on his always mobile and expressive face as he sits listening to Nancy, is a master class on how to shoot an actor in a way that captures their beauty but doesn’t objectify them. He may be the object of the title’s salutary sentence, but he’s definitely the joint subject of the film.

Full credits

Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres)

Cast: Daryl McCormack, Emma Thompson, Isabella Laughland

Production companies: Genesius Pictures, Cornerstone Films, Align, Paterson James

Director: Sophie Hyde

Screenwriter: Katy Brand Producers: Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski Executive producers: Katy Brand, Sophie Hyde, Alison Thompson, Mark Gooder, Julian Gleek, Martin Metz, Nessa McGill, Nadia Khamlichi Director of photography: Bryan Mason Production designer: Miren Maranon Costume designer: Sian Jenkins Editor: Bryan Mason Sound designer: Steve Fannagan Music: Stephen Rennicks Music supervisor: Gary Welch Casting: Amy Hubbard Sales: Cornerstone Films

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Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Reviews

In conclusion, Good Luck, Leo Grande reflects movingly and insightfully on shame, sexual connection, and emotional frustrations with a bittersweet flavor that manages to entertain us, but also make us think.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Dec 28, 2023

There’s a vulnerability in every aspect of the film that makes it endearing, essential viewing.

Full Review | Aug 6, 2023

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande plays out in a conventional way that resembles that of a theatre play because of its intimate nature and attention to dialogue, but that is actually a bold choice

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 1, 2023

It is a two-hander that could have been easily a stage play but director Sophie Hyde and writer Katy Brand take risks to deliver this charming exploration of human desires between two top performing actors.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

Great performances Engaging dialogue And a charming feature

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

The most significant achievement of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is the film's impressive ability to create a safe environment where the often uncomfortable topics become comfortable within everyday conversation.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 23, 2023

A movie that so welcomingly embraces body positivity through sensual intimacy — in a culture where body image is such a pressing issue — is a goddamn treasure and deserves to be lifted up.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 19, 2023

There's too much foreplay in this portrayal of repression as the enemy of fulfillment, but Leo Grande also finds wit, charm, and a seamless mix of laughs and pathos along the way. It's informed by kindness and respect.

Full Review | May 30, 2023

Ironically enough such movies are slotted as niche, but the emotion here is universal.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 17, 2023

The two leads are terrific in a witty sex-positive bedroom farce that seduces and satisfies.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2023

A very likable sample of a periodic rarity, a first-rate film actress making a serious film about female sexuality with as much frankness and even nudity as the era will permit.

Full Review | Jan 23, 2023

This little film is one huge step forward in sex positive cinema. I honestly want to recommend it to everyone, no matter how experienced they may be with sex already. Everyone can learn something from this.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Dec 30, 2022

Daryl McCormack graced us with stellar performances...

Full Review | Dec 27, 2022

More than a mere philosophical exercise, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is sweet, sexy, and certainly the new favorite film of Father Intintola from The Sopranos.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2022

Hyde splashes the story with sincere, touching, and sparkling moments that invite empathy, approaching emotions not yet discovered with caution. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Nov 29, 2022

If we ever had a preconceived idea of ​​the patterns that govern a relationship, it's very likely that this film will transform it, with its risky subject, experimental tone, and theatrical style. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 6, 2022

Leo tells Nancy he is there to fulfil her fantasy, but she is compelled to keep digging obsessively in search of reality.

Full Review | Sep 22, 2022

An unconventional, “march to its own beat” film that slowly lays into you, story-wise. The beginning is simple and interesting enough for most proper age groups to digest it, which helps the buy-in factor when the tone gets more serious.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Sep 9, 2022

A tennis match of gestures and talks, and if it reaches fruition is because the performers escalate towards similar heights: he, with forced and yapping gallantry; her, with the dramatic flair of wearing her emotions on her skin. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Sep 2, 2022

Never mind 'Good.' It's Great.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Sep 1, 2022

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande Review

A beautifully honest look at intimacy..

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande debuts on Hulu on June 17, 2022.

In Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Dame Emma Thompson is in her most candid role as Nancy, a former schoolteacher and widow who has lived a boring and basic lifestyle – she has never even had an orgasm. In an effort to reclaim her sexuality, she hires a young, handsome sex worker, Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack), to fulfil her every sexual fantasy. Though that premise seems superficial on the surface, what unfolds is a far cry from 50 Shades of Grey, beautifully peeling back the layers between two very different people exposing their emotional baggage, vulnerabilities, and personal trauma.

With the set simply consisting of the interior of one hotel room, the majority of the film’s success depends on the chemistry and conversations between the two main characters. Fortunately, Thompson and McCormack’s chemistry is efficacious as the cool and collected Leo attempts to pacify a flustered and repressed Nancy, who is still struggling with the idea of hiring a sex worker to begin with. Screenwriter Katy Brand keeps the conversations intriguing and as raw as possible. Thompson doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to Nancy’s resentment of the life she’s lived – one filled with obligation, but never satisfaction. McCormack portrays the fantasy of Leo perfectly, but leaves tiny cracks of a real damaged person behind the sexy smile and oozing charisma.

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Although Nancy initially comes off as judgemental, we learn it’s only because she is a product of her generation, where sexual desires, especially those of women, were inhibited. Leo, meanwhile, represents the current generation where sexuality is more open, fluid, and lesst defined by labels, including attitudes towards sex work. Their attempts to connect and empathize with each other’s different views allows for great dialogue. When Nancy questions hiring Leo throughout their first meeting because of her perceptions of sex work, it gives him the chance to alleviate her anxieties by explaining that it’s a simple business transaction and that he feels no shame at what he does.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a delightful story of two strangers finding a connection and celebrating their differences. Their relationship feels so natural and, quite honestly, refreshing. The topic of the female orgasm, sexual pleasure, and self-love is rarely talked about in mainstream films without it resorting to some raunchy rom-com where it is seen as a joke. Instead, the subject is explored here through the lens of a woman who struggled with self-acceptance of her sexuality, wants, and desires – and finally feeling herself after all these years. In a time when society has made women’s bodies into a thing of politics, shying away from the discussion of sex, it’s enlightening to watch a film that embraces it and beautifully portrays what it means to finally love yourself.

What's the best Emma Thompson movie?

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a heartfelt dramedy about a middle-aged woman and the sex worker she hires and their candid conversations about life, shame, and acceptance. Director Sophie Hyde and writer Katy Brand beautifully explore aging women’s desires and needs and what it means to finally love yourself. Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack’s chemistry is intense and each give brilliant performances.

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Good Luck To You, Leo Grande review: Emma Thompson takes this post-menopausal tale in hand

Emma Thompson and rising star Daryl McCormack are sublime in this graphic, bound-to-be-controversial British dramedy about a middle-aged, English widow whose life is transformed by a twentysomething Irish prostitute. The film may be as dodgy as it is ground-breaking, but the chemistry between the two actors is undeniably grand.

Mother-of-two, Nancy (Thompson), is a privileged and often patronising pedagogue. She’s spent most of her adult life teaching RE to recalcitrant teens. Now she wants to educate herself, re lust. In an anonymous hotel room, she hands gigolo Leo (McCormack), a list of “goals”, that include giving him a blow job and doing it doggy style.

Having an orgasm is not on the list. Nancy, you see, is a pessimist/realist. She says that she faked orgasms with her husband and performs her phoney moan, to hilarious effect (it’s a time-saving variation on the one in When Harry Met Sally). The charming Leo, who at first seems unflappable, thinks he can satisfy Nancy. Is he right?

Nancy feels like a spiritual cousin to Olivia Colman’s character in The Lost Daughter. Both Nancy and Leda are intellectuals, flummoxed by the demands of motherhood, whose caustic wit can give way on a dime to spite and snobbery. If you like flawed and funny heroines, you’re in luck. That said, Leda and Nancy take a very different approach to sexual healing. Where Leda only flirts with the idea of flirting with a man half her age, Nancy goes the whole way.

In the second half of the movie, Thompson’s body is very much in our face. Like Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown, the 62 year old actress has firmly refused to deny the ageing process, and gives us her all. And of course, Thompson is actually super-sexy, not because she’s been lit to look younger than she is (the lighting is sometimes soft, sometimes harsh). She’s a sight for sore eyes because, when she throws back her head and laughs, she makes you believe that everyone and anyone who likes themselves is hot.

In separate scenes, Nancy and Leo survey themselves in the hotel mirror. No words are spoken but, on both occasions, the effect is deeply moving.

The script, written by comedian Katy Brand, isn’t always so deft. After several twists (some intriguing, some histrionic), Nancy gets a speech in which she suggests all post-menopausal women, in order to avoid “crinkling up” with frustration, should have a few sessions with someone like Leo. She’s essentially saying, ‘You’re as young as (the young sex worker) you feel.” That’s not feminism, that’s ageist piffle designed to reel in audiences who think Magic Mike shows are cutting edge.

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande was filmed in Norfolk last March, while England was still in lockdown, which partially explains why almost everything happens in just two settings (the aforementioned hotel and a restaurant with all the buzz of a particularly dismal graveyard).

The movie only works when the camera is honed on Thompson and McCormack. Leo looks at Nancy and says, “Thank you for coming.” The big question: will women come in their droves, when this film finally hits the UK?

97mins, cert tbc

In cinemas June 17

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Good Luck to You, Leo Grande review: Emma Thompson hires a gigolo in this sweet, nuanced comedy

Screenwriter katy brand doesn’t settle for easy sentiment in this refreshing two-hander, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Sophie Hyde. Starring: Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack, Isabella Laughland, Charlotte Ware, Carina Lopes. 15, 97 minutes.

“I want to do a blow job,” Emma Thompson ’s Nancy announces in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande . “Get that sorted.” She throws those words out as if she were reminding herself to get the oil changed in her car – mechanically, even a little irritably. Nancy’s husband died two years ago. He was the only man she’d ever had sex with, and none of it was particularly good. All of it missionary. She’s never had an orgasm, and doesn’t expect to anytime soon. But there’s a laundry list of sexual activities that she feels compelled to work through, as if they were obligatory steps to earning her womanhood badge. So she hires a sex worker, who calls himself Leo Grande.

When Leo ( Peaky Blinders ’s Daryl McCormack) describes Nigella Lawson as “sexy” without any deflating qualifiers (“…for her age”), Nancy’s taken aback. Who the hell is this guy? Which Jackie Collins novel did he and his perfect set of abs just step out of? Good Luck to You, Leo Grande could easily have been packaged up as the kind of feel-good feminist power anthem that privileges personal liberation above all. But screenwriter Katy Brand, a regular on the British comedy circuit, hasn’t settled for easy sentiment. Empowerment is only one piece of the puzzle, which together forms a refreshingly nuanced portrait of sex work, desire and self-perception.

Nancy, a retired religious education teacher, describes how she used to assign her pupils the essay question, “should sex work be made legal?” They’d always reply with the same thing: “Although the moral issues remain up for debate, the legalisation of sex work would ultimately provide protection for sex workers and help eradicate trafficking and abuse.” We’re led to believe Nancy shares that view.

But, though morally sound, there’s a certain emotional detachment to that answer. Sex work, even among the progressively minded, is still treated as something to be kept out of sight and out of mind. There’s crushingly little agency given to those who pursue it. And so Nancy, when faced with Leo’s easy confidence, immediately launches into a full-blown interrogation: is he an orphan? Has he been trafficked? When was the last time he saw his mother? Is she exploiting him? She demands Leo give up the veil of anonymity so essential to his work – both are using fake names, of course – purely to satisfy her own conscience.

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Sophie Hyde, whose 2019 directorial effort Animals tackled toxic friendships with equal savvy, makes the most of the film’s fixed location. We’re confined entirely to Nancy’s hotel room, minus a brief sojourn to a cafe and the hotel’s bar. The place is sterile but elegant, as mid-priced hotels tend to be. There’s nowhere, really, for these characters to run. Nothing, either, to distract them from the bare-faced truth of what’s brought them here.

Thompson has always done flummoxed like no other, and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande isn’t any different. But less expected from the actor is the harshness that creeps into her voice at certain moments. Who exactly is this woman outside this room? Beyond this conversation? We’re left to wonder. McCormack, meanwhile, does a sublime job of essentially playing two characters: the self-assured and chivalrous Leo Grande, and the man who lives behind him. We’re offered only the smallest of glimpses. “I made him and I’m proud of him,” he says of Leo. Hyde’s film is generous in that way – it understands that he deserves to feel good about himself just as much as Nancy does.

‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’ is in cinemas from Friday 17 June

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Review: A winning charmer in ‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Emma Thompson, left, and Daryl McCormack in a scene from “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.” (Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Emma Thompson, right, and Daryl McCormack in a scene from “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.” (Searchlight Pictures via AP)

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Female desire is not a topic that gets a lot of space in mainstream Hollywood movies. And the desire of women north of 45? Well, that’s been almost exclusively the province of Nancy Meyers, Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. There have been others, sure, but it’s often either played for humor or scrubbed and sanitized of anything remotely carnal. Usually it’s some horrifyingly infantilized combination of both. It’s as though someone decided that audiences couldn’t possibly bear to watch a woman of menopause age acting or even feeling sexual and few have dared to challenge that notion.

That’s all to say that it is a small miracle that “ Good Luck to You, Leo Grande ,” a smart, nuanced and adamantly sex-positive film about a 55-year-old woman, exists. In the film, written by Katy Brand and directed by Sophie Hyde, Emma Thompson plays said woman. Nancy is a retired religion teacher and somewhat recent widow who hires a handsome young sex worker, the titular Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack), for a night.

We’re introduced to the characters, essentially the only ones in the film, in a perfect, dialogue-free sequence right before they meet. It tells you a lot about who they are and how they exist in the world, but not everything. There’s basically 90 minutes of wide-ranging conversations to follow that will help flesh out that whole conundrum.

Nancy arrives at the tasteful hotel room armed with a sensible overnight roller bag, wearing a modest pencil skirt, matching blazer and floral blouse (her negligée is, hilariously, a not so different floral print). She’s flustered and rumpled and nervous as she switches from her flats to heels and checks the minibar. Leo, meanwhile, is a picture of youthful confidence and effortlessly put-together, as though he’s just stepped out of an advertisement for a trendy eco-conscious clothing startup. Together they’re not much different: She starts questioning her choice, chalking it up to a fit of madness and wondering what it says about her. He, meanwhile, continues to be cool, calm, charming and armed with a perfect response to everything.

The main reason for this “fit of madness” is that Nancy has never had an orgasm. She doesn’t expect to get one from the session with Leo, but she’s found herself with a bit of freedom finally after following rules, both self and societally imposed, for her entire life and has a few things she’d like to do. Nancy is deeply unsatisfied with her life, her body, her grown children (one is too boring, one is too wild) and her marriage. Repressed isn’t the right word, but perhaps unfulfilled is.

She can’t quite see or appreciate how lucky she is to have found Leo, who is patient and clever and not easy to write off. This drives her a bit mad, too, having lived life according to a set of principles that she knows haven’t brought her happiness and are outdated but that she’s not quite ready to let go of yet. And she will at various points over the next 90 minutes sabotage things.

Leo, both as a person and a character, is self-consciously styled as a bit of a fantasy. He’s there to be whatever his clients need him to be. The film doesn’t go especially deep into the world of sex work, though there are some references to bad clients and how it can be more unsafe for women. It is, for the most part, a rose-colored glasses version of what it could be.

Thompson is truly better than ever and brings to life a complex and evolving person with humor, grace and a sharp edge. McCormack, meanwhile, is a star in the making. And together, the two are magnetic in this wonderfully adult film that is funny, sad, awkward, empowering and illuminating.

The truth is, you don’t really know what audiences want if you’re not giving them the option. “It’s Complicated” and “Something’s Gotta Give” made almost $500 million at the box office, after all. “Leo Grande,” in 2022, shouldn’t really be a revelation. And maybe it’s not, but I’m still celebrating.

“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” a Searchlight Pictures release on Hulu Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “sexual content, graphic nudity and some language.” Running time: 97 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

MPA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr

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Good luck to you, leo grande, common sense media reviewers.

Sex, nudity, and empathy in profound, intimate drama.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The film celebrates human bodies and has an empowe

Nancy is very real, flawed, and insecure, yet she

The two leads are a middle-aged woman with agency

The characters discuss war and weaponry, and one h

The entire film is about sex. Conversations are gr

Occasional use of "f--k," as well as "a--hole" and

Both characters drink from the mini-bar at the hot

Parents need to know that Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a two-character drama starring Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack that tackles themes and subjects often considered taboo -- namely, that desire and pleasure are never anything to feel ashamed about. The film is a real celebration of self-confidence and…

Positive Messages

The film celebrates human bodies and has an empowering undercurrent that encourages people to be happy and confident in their own skin. It also explores the notion that age is just a number, and that we're never too old to have desires and want to be pleasured -- and we shouldn't feel ashamed of it.

Positive Role Models

Nancy is very real, flawed, and insecure, yet she knows what she wants and deserves: to be loved and touched. She's frank on subjects rarely dealt with in cinema but very relatable to many -- i.e. having been in a sexually suppressive relationship and regretting motherhood. Leo is an escort, and is empowered by his life choice to be a sex worker, not exploited. He creates a safe space for his clients and doesn't judge them. As they get to know each other, they demonstrate communication and develop empathy for each other.

Diverse Representations

The two leads are a middle-aged woman with agency and a man of color (Irish actor Daryl McCormack has a White mother and a Black father). The film was written and directed by women. The movie explores nuanced and profound issues that many women experience as they age yet rarely see reflected back to them on screen.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

The characters discuss war and weaponry, and one has an emotional outburst that's slightly intimidating, but he takes it out on the hotel furniture.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The entire film is about sex. Conversations are graphic, discussing intercourse and all the different subjects that surround it, including orgasms, threesomes, erections, and anal sex. There's a graphic sex montage in which the two characters try many different positions. They both climax, him during intercourse, and her via masturbation. Leo is seen naked from behind, with a brief glimpse of his penis as he turns around. There's a long full-frontal shot of Nancy standing in the mirror as she looks over her body. Sex work is discussed at length.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Occasional use of "f--k," as well as "a--hole" and ‘"p---y." Derogatory words such as "whore" and "slut" are used.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Both characters drink from the mini-bar at the hotel. It seems that they use alcohol as a means to steady their nerves. They drink sparkling wine to celebrate.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a two-character drama starring Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack that tackles themes and subjects often considered taboo -- namely, that desire and pleasure are never anything to feel ashamed about. The film is a real celebration of self-confidence and the importance of loving your body, no matter its perceived flaws. The topic and act of sex take center stage, with brief full male nudity and more lingering female nudity. An extended, graphic sex montage includes moaning/orgasm and shows many different positions. There's also simulated masturbation and oral sex. The characters have many frank conversations about sex and sex work (both believe the latter should be legalized). The two characters are vulnerable, insecure, and learn a lot from each other, despite being very different. Language includes "f--k," "whore," and "slut," and the characters drink alcohol together. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE follows Nancy Stokes ( Emma Thompson ), a widowed teacher/mother who had a very unsatisfying sex life with her late husband and decides that she wants to explore her sexuality and try something new. So she hires a handsome young escort named Leo Grande Daryl McCormack ). But what transpires isn't just a quick fling; rather, it's a connection between two people who have a lot to get off their chests.

Is It Any Good?

This drama was undoubtedly very inexpensive to make, but it's incredibly rich in the themes and messages it seeks to convey. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande feels play-like in its simple, single setting and two-character structure. While that could be an issue in other films, here it matters little, if at all, thanks to wonderful character development and strikingly impressive performances. Thompson gives one of the finest of her career: Nancy is a remarkable character, diving headfirst into themes and conversation points seldom seen in mainstream films (credit to writer Katy Brand for tackling it all, too!).

While the lead characters are certainly insecure, their gradual ability to learn to love themselves, who they are, and what they look like, is infectious, giving the movie an ultimately uplifting feel. And McCormack must be commended for going toe-to-toe with a legendary performer like Thompson and coming out with his head held high. Don't be surprised if you end up liking these two characters so much as the film progresses that you sort of hope they might meet up for another date soon, if only so we can enter their world one more time.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Good Luck to You, Leo Grande encourages viewers to learn to love themselves and their bodies. Is that something you've ever felt insecure about? Did watching this film help?

It's very rare to see female sexuality, particularly for women over 60, explored in mainstream cinema. Why do you think that is?

The movie's sex scenes and discussions about sex are quite graphic. How do you feel about having open, free dialogue about sex?

Characters debate topics related to sex work, including whether it should be legalized. What are your opinions on the subject?

How does Nancy and Leo's relationship show the importance of both communication and empathy ?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : June 17, 2022
• Cast : Emma Thompson , Daryl McCormack
• Director : Sophie Hyde
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Black actors
• Studio : Searchlight Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Character Strengths : Communication , Empathy
• Run time : 97 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : sexual content, graphic nudity and some language
• Last updated : March 15, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Review: Emma Thompson gets (and gives) marvelous sex ed in ‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’

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The long, oddly charming title of “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” is a line of dialogue spoken near the end of this not-too-long and thoroughly charming British comedy. Much earlier than that, however, you might find yourself expressing some version of the same sentiment. Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) is a sex worker in his 20s, and while he’s had many clients of varying persuasions and proclivities, he has never encountered one quite like Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson), the prim, anxious 55-year-old widow who’s booked him for a high-priced session. Leo will need more than luck to put nervous Nancy at ease; he’ll need every tool in his kit, the most impressive and dexterous of which may be his tongue.

No need to get your mind out of the gutter; this movie would prefer it stay there. And it knows that when it comes to sex, the tongue can be an instrument of both pleasure and persuasion. Leo has a way with words, a flair for language that endears him to Nancy, a retired high school teacher. And during most of the four separate appointments that make up Katy Brand’s script, Leo and Nancy are engaged in long bouts of verbal foreplay, sharing intimate secrets and navigating a raft of fears and insecurities (most but not all of them Nancy’s). You could say that Brand and director Sophie Hyde take their time getting to the good stuff, except that the talk is good stuff, full of erotic tension, playful humor and candid insight into the erogenous zones of the mind.

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“What’s your fantasy?” Leo asks Nancy during their first meeting in the comfortable-looking hotel room that serves as the film’s primary location. But Nancy, leaning hard on her experience as an educator (and also on Thompson’s skill at playing persnickety authority types), deals more in goals than fantasies. In one of the film’s funnier exchanges, she reads from a list of sex acts she wants to try out, like a waiter rattling off the nightly specials. You have to admire her directness. Having spent decades in a stable, unexciting, orgasm-free marriage, Nancy now wants to shed her inhibitions and satisfy her pent-up longings with a handsome, well-built young man like Leo.

Behind the joyful, nonjudgmental, totally uninhibited sex scenes of ‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’

Nude rehearsals, deep trust and ‘enthusiastic consent’ were all part of the process for stars Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack and director Sophie Hyde.

June 17, 2022

Still, those inhibitions persist, along with all the assumptions and prejudices that come with a socially conservative middle-class English background. (Nancy used to teach religious studies, a calling that seems not to have exactly tamed her libido.) Thompson, skilled at both effrontery and anxiety, mines that tension brilliantly. Nancy knows what she wants and is terrified by how badly she wants it, and she spends much of the early going trying to talk herself out of it, fretting about how much older she is than Leo and how repelled he must be by her sags and wrinkles. But Leo, waving this nonsense aside, reminds her that there’s nothing abnormal, let alone shameful, about expressing something so basic as desire.

“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” thus achieves both the intimacy of a chamber piece and the directness of a public service announcement, one aimed at promoting sex/body positivity and debunking retrograde attitudes about women’s pleasure and the nature of sex work. If that makes it sound stagy and even didactic — you could certainly imagine it working well as a play — well, the message is a worthy one, and all PSAs should be this pleasurable. At times you can see the gears of Brand’s script grinding away, the carefully engineered pivots from one point or revelation to the next. (The fourth act, in particular, leaves no point unaddressed.) But Hyde stages it all with an unfussy elegance that serves the material, and any lingering creakiness is dispelled by Thompson and McCormack, who always seem to be playing people rather than ideological mouthpieces.

Their dialogue builds up a suitably erotic rhythm; it’s all about give and take, back and forth, the satisfaction of curiosity, the delineation and occasional transgression of boundaries. Nancy, projecting her own moral reservations onto Leo, sometimes goes too far in interrogating him about his profession. Doesn’t he ever feel degraded? And if not, then why does he employ a false identity (Leo Grande, surprise surprise, isn’t his real name) and hide the truth about his work from his family? There’s some honesty in the movie’s acknowledgment that even transactional sex is never the simple, no-strings-attached affair its participants might like to think. Nancy, having shared at length about her dull job, duller marriage and disappointing kids, understandably wants to know more about the man she’s paying to sleep with.

We want to know more about Leo, too, and McCormack, an Irish actor known for his work on “Peaky Blinders,” suggests just the right levels of depth and mystery beneath the cute face and chiseled physique. But we want to know Nancy even more, and Thompson’s performance more than satisfies that curiosity. This is hardly the first time she’s had passionate onscreen sex (who could forget the exploding milk carton in “The Tall Guy” ?). Nor is it the first time she’s played a role conceived in opposition to the ageist, sexist status quo, as she did in the 2019 comedy “Late Night.” Still, she has seldom worn her intent as clearly as she does in what is already “Leo Grande’s” most talked-about scene, one that beautifully dismantles every film-industry assumption about which bodies, especially women’s bodies, warrant the camera’s attention.

Mainstream movies, as Thompson, Hyde, Brand and their collaborators know, have done more than their part to keep women in their place, treating the complexities of human sexuality as grounds for sniggering humor at best and censorship at worst. “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” presents itself as a corrective, with an earnestness that verges on the Utopian; for all its low-key intimacy and emotional realism, this movie knows it’s selling a fantasy of its own. But it’s hard not to warm to that fantasy, or to embrace its still-rare vision of a woman learning to articulate and satisfy her most human impulses. It’s good for Nancy. And for us.

‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’

Rating: R, for sexual content, graphic nudity and some language Running time : 1 hour, 37 minutes Playing: Available June 17 on Hulu

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Justin Chang was a film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2016 to 2024. He is the author of the book “FilmCraft: Editing” and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

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Good Luck To You, Leo Grande Review: Emma Thompson’s Sexual Awakening Comedy Is As Seductive As It Is Heartfelt

It's pretty woman with a smart twist..

When it comes to the depiction of life over 50, Hollywood has provided the message again and again that men can hold exciting lives and still even be action stars, from James Bond to John Wick to Arnold Schwarzenegger , often alongside heroines decades younger than them. Yet for women, it’s been deemed profusely boring to be in one’s skin once you reach the middle ages. Now mind you, Good Luck To You, Leo Grande is nothing like the aforementioned movies, but it is a rare (and grounded) approach to a woman in her second act of life, taking the lead and finally getting some action with a much younger gent opposite her. 

In a somewhat of a Pretty Woman role-reversal, a widowed Nancy ( Emma Thompson ) hires an upscale, and strikingly handsome sex worker who goes by Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) for a couple hours, but she suddenly doesn’t know how to go through with it. Her nerves take over and she tells him the whole thing “feels controversial all of a sudden.” Charming immediately with Thompson’s usual razor-sharp comedic timing and the soft and calming presence of McCormack by her side, Good Luck To You, Leo Grande gets realistic about how difficult it can be for a generation of women to become empowered in sex when its often been a subject of so much shame and restraint to own one’s power over finding pleasure in it. 

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande has a small, intimate feel to it that compliments its story. 

The British comedy, which premiered at Sundance and will become available exclusively on Hulu, takes place entirely in the nondescript hotel room where Nancy meets Leo Grande after a life of routine and unsatisfying sex with one man throughout her life, her late husband, who died two years prior. Nancy is a school teacher who nervously scoffs at Leo’s question of “what her fantasy is” upon entering, responding anxiously that her expectation was simply the bare minimum of getting some. Yes, the comedy starts off incredibly awkward as Leo Grande attempts to set the mood and Nancy’s insecurities flood the air of the fancy hotel room. Not every single beat works, and sometimes it feels like a moment drags, but at its core, there’s a tightly focused perspective both on Nancy and Leo Grande. 

And throughout the film by newcomer director Sophie Hyde, Leo Grande is an intimate and focused concept. In its simplicity, it feels like a two-hander play at times that, with its players rising to the weight in the film they must hold, and aside from a bit of confusing tension in the middle of the film, hold attention. The development of their characters and their growing dynamic keeps one on their toes, and its pacing remains thoughtful throughout. 

Emma Thompson gives an especially great and vulnerable performance that is perfect for her usual charms.

Emma Thompson is often the best part of any movie she’s in, though often as the supporting role or right alongside another leading role. In 2021's Cruella , she was the villain to Emma Stone ’s wild turn to evil Disney royalty. Then there’s the classic example of Love, Actually , where she broke all our hearts during the massive ensemble holiday classic. In Leo Grande , it feels like a rare occasion for Thompson to fully take the stage and help say something meaningful and special, and in the comedy, she does just that. Aside from the actress literally baring it all physically, her performance itself matches this in vulnerability, and even bravery. If there’s one thing you take away from Leo Grande , it’s how on top of her game Thompson continues to be, and perhaps you'll wonder how underutilized she’s also been in the past. But that’s certainly not all there is to take away from it. 

With Nancy, Emma Thompson is able to dive into a storyline women of her caliber, age or really any for that matter have had the opportunity to express. What Leo Grande illustrates is unique because it’s just not a topic we’ve seen pulled apart the way this movie, and Katy Brand’s script, does that with a grounded and realness that feels rebellious to the typical Hollywood ideal.  

Leo Grande is surprisingly sexy, and distinctively forwards the conversation around sex and body positivity. 

Through Nancy’s character, there’s an expression of stigma that comes with asking for what one wants in sex, especially through the eyes of a middle-aged woman who came from a religious and slut-shaming background. But through her eyes comes the topic that not only speaks to her age or situation particularly, but one of women being taught to be ashamed of their bodies, their sex appeal and ability to ask for more, both in the bedroom and their larger visions in life. 

The movie is not only about empowerment of Nancy either; it also has a sharp perspective for its sex worker, Leo Grande. Between Nancy attempting to get all fixed up and ready in the bathroom before things get hot and heavy, there’s also little moments focused on Leo as he fixes his shirt and position in bed. As the movie progresses, Leo is also given a full scale arc that shows attention to the complexities of sex workers and more realistic depictions of these people that also defies stereotypes. Leo Grande empowers its sex worker character just as much as his customer throughout its delicately handled story. With that, the way the unique dynamic of Nancy and Leo is approached is with authenticity rather than fantasy. 

When it comes to the sex scenes and nudity in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande , there’s a natural tension the movie builds that feels natural to the story and in complete service of it. And when Leo Grande gets sexual, it's sensual and naturally seductive thanks to incredible chemistry, build up (foreplay if you will) and payoff. In other words, Leo Grande knows what it's doing.

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.

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Good Luck To You, Leo Grande Review

17 Jun 2022

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande

There is no shortage of sexual awakening stories centred on young ladies’ experience of the big O for the first time. Unfortunately, far too many women go through life without climaxing at all — and this is where comedian and screenwriter Katy Brand has stepped in to fill that orgasm gap. With Sophie Hyde on directing duties, this is an endearing, bubbly and heartening two-hander about female pleasure from a mature woman’s perspective. Together with Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack, Brand and Hyde have captured that particularly dry style of humour and matter-of-factness so typical of the British romcom, with a sex-positive flair.

Thompson gives us everything. An award-winning screenwriter herself, it’s abundantly clear the actor has invested both personally and creatively in her repressed ex-schoolteacher. Nancy is a flood of contradictions: vulnerable and assertive, liberally minded but sexually conservative, straight-talking yet easily embarrassed by phrases like “anal sex”. She might be the older woman, but early on Thompson plays her almost like a 16-year-old about to pop her cherry, wide-eyed insecurity and nervous energy vibrating off her body. Like Aubrey Plaza ’s feminist teen lead in The To Do List , she has a catalogue of carnal pleasures to experience for the first time, and Leo is the man to do just that.

Brand's script takes great care to dissect the ambiguities around sex and sex work without shame.

A calming foil to his tightly wound client, McCormack serves as a charismatic receptacle to Thompson’s anxious stream-of-consciousness, as well as a mirror to her more generational, mother-knows-best prejudices. Even as you empathise with the chaotic way Nancy unpacks her fears and sexual desires, the patient mask Leo wears rarely slips; it’s only her questions about his life, aspirations and reasons for being in his profession that cause his poise to falter. The underlying tension doesn’t quite rip but ripples as McCormark’s placid demeanour shifts, forcing a deeper interrogation for them both.

A Norwich hotel room sets the stage for this tête-à-tête; its beige decor of muted colours doesn’t pull focus and dulls any erotic charge. 
It’s not without its sensuality — at moments, the camera luxuriates in both their bodies — but naturalistic lighting grounds the encounter in the awkward, transactional reality. Navigating the power dynamic between client and sex worker, older white woman and young biracial man, Brand might have probed a bit deeper instead of tying up things so neatly. But in avoiding racial clichés and exploitative moments, her script takes great care to dissect the ambiguities around sex and sex work without shame, a lot of compassion and welcome comic relief. With bold direction, this is a healthy, relatable romp every man and woman should make time for.

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Blake lively & justin baldoni romance ‘it ends with us’ will now begin in early august, ‘good fortune’: aziz ansari brings down house, ribs lionsgate boss adam fogelson on over-casting henry cavill in pics – cinemacon.

By Anthony D'Alessandro , Nancy Tartaglione

“I don’t buy into this thing that theatrical comedies aren’t a thing,” said Good Fortune director and star Aziz Ansari while presenting his Lionsgate movie Good Fortune on Wednesday at CinemaCon in what was the first look at the film.

The Parks and Rec alum came out on stage riffing, “I know what you’re thinking: Oh my God, it’s Henry Cavill in brown face, how inappropriate!”

“Adam (Fogelson)’s nickname for me is ‘Little brown Cavill’… Enough with Cavill…You’ve casted Henry Cavill in five films!” he jokingly admonished the Lionsgate Motion Picture Chair. 

He said his inspiration to make Good Fortune was because he “had been doing some more dramatic work recently and I really wanted to make a comedy and I wanted it to be in theaters.”

“People do want to come to the theater and laugh together. I think we can do it, I don’t think we can say this genre doesn’t work,” Ansari emphasized.

Of the cast, he said, “We had f*cking Keanu man,” and then recounted how Reeves injured himself while filming. “Fifteen days into shooting with me I said go to the dressing room and chill and he tripped on a rug and fractured his kneecap.”

Of Reeves who plays an angel in the movie: “He actually is an angel, this is the first time he’s gotten to play his true form.”

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In Good Fortune , Ansari plays a down-on-his-luck guy who is working myriad jobs. He’s called by his friend (played by Seth Rogen), who lives in the Hollywood Hills, to do various jobs for him — put in a disco floor, fix the pool heater. Keanu Reeves “valley” angel makes it so Rogen’s rich guy situation is swapped with Ansari, so the latter has the former’s life.

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It looks hysterical and received a ton of laughs here at Caesars Colosseum.

No date for Good Fortune yet.

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