Sundance review: Emma Thompson’s brave turn in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

One of the most enjoyable films out of the Sundance Film Festival featured Emma Thompson, in an intimate study alongside Irish-accented Daryl McCormack, a sex worker, ‘Leo Grande,’ who meets Thompson’s religious studies teacher, ‘Nancy Stokes,’ at a hotel room. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a tender film that explorers the concept of pleasure for an older person, particularly a woman, encapsulated in Thompson’s prim widow, who has not only never orgasmed but had experienced only one way of sex with her husband of 31 years.

Nancy’s sexual evolution is sensitively developed throughout the film, which would also make an intriguing two-person, intimate play, to be honest. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, is a fascinating study in how film can be approached on a small scale, with the hotel room serving as the only landscape for the unfolding of the drama (except for a minor scene in the hotel lobby coffee shop that represents an important component of Nancy’s character development).

As the two individuals continue to meet in the hotel room, the conversation between them develops as we understand Nancy’s sexual emotional journey, but also ‘Leo’s’ (neither are their real names, of course) complicated relationship with his shaming mother as well as his own need to be honest about his line of work with his brother, for whom he cares deeply. McCormack also puts in excellent work here.

The refreshing take on a sex-positive portrait for an older woman who doesn’t want to die before experiencing pleasure and more potent sexual connection is a tale that is so rarely told in Hollywood, I honestly can’t even recall a similar film. It is why narratives such as Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, written by British comedian Katy Brand and directed by Sophie Hyde, need to exist, be made, and be accessible to so many women who can relate to just such a story arc.

To say that Emma Thompson is marvelous here is an absolute understatement. She imbues Nancy Stokes (I won’t give away her unveiled name in the film, which comes with its insider joke about older women and sex) with an engaging vulnerability, sexual curiosity only availed to men her age (62), and a deep emotional need to connect, frustrations with her kids, wonder about her life and what might have been. Only an actress of Thompson’s quality would bring all this to life in multi-layered ways that draw you in throughout the intricate film.

Thompson makes Nancy’s hyper-critical view of her own body to one of sensual and self-satisfied acceptance a journey of fascinating wonder. So is a natural shot of her sexual satisfaction, which is a revelatory surprise and utterly delightful. Her fully nude smile of self-acceptance, in a brightly lit hotel room that is neither specially lit nor intended to hide any flaws, is the most alluring element of Nancy’s journey of self-confidence and happiness.

“Part of our vulnerability and the ability that that has – seeing these two people face their vulnerability is what gave each other access to dig further,” Daryl McCormack said during the Sundance Question and Answer session post-film.

"“As soon as we actually look into one another’s eyes and exchange our experiences and our humanity all of that just goes. It goes in an instant because we’re humans,” added Emma Thompson."

"“I was thrilled to read it and read it in thirty seconds flat and wrote back and said ‘You have to do this! We have to make this! We absolutely have to make it. RIGHT NOW!”“It’s perfect, like nothing I’d done before… It was very freeing. It was a beautiful experience.,” Thompson said about the intimacy of filming such a groundbreaking movie about older women."

I mean, if this was a film with the sex roles reversed, would we even be talking about it? Shockingly, such a novel project would be considered such a rarity, but even so, it’s why this caliber of the film is necessary for social conversation. The fact that it was beautifully written and incredibly acted makes it one of the most important narratives to come out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.