A gorgeous film I LOVE this film. Its just beautifully written - funny, tender, occasionally sad.
A 60-something widow of two years, who never had an orgasm throughout her 31 year marriage hires young sex worker Leo Grande to catch up on the sex life she never had during her marriage.
Emma Thompson as Nancy plays her role perfectly, of someone who has never been fulfilled in that way sexually and how awkward she feels desiring these experiences whilst conflicted about hiring a young and handsome sex worker. Like many older people she is also insecure about her body and her looks.
Rather than the entire film being about Leo and Nancy getting it on, we see them build up a trust, almost a friendship, with heartfelt and raw conversations in the surroundings of the hotel room Nancy has booked her appointments with Leo. In fact the vast majority of the film takes place within these walls. At the beginning it feels like the room reflects how Nancy feels - isolated, alone, closed, but it eventually becomes a space of discovery and pleasure.
We see Nancy and Leo's time together as 4 separate bookings that Nancy had made, and in that time you see growth in both characters - Nancy accepting her body, herself, and embracing sexual pleasure, whilst Leo (this isn't his real name by the way) becomes more open to his family about his career, rather than hiding it away.
By the end of the film it feels like both main characters have grown, especially Nancy who realises that she isn't too old to enjoy herself, and the final scene we see her get fully naked and accept her body and herself. Emma Thompson has said this was the most difficult scene for her to film, and whilst I am not a 60 something woman who has had children, I and many others can probably empathise with this, as well as how Nancy feels about her body, that we aren't as young or as thin and toned as we once were, but that all bodies, shapes and sizes can be beautiful, sexual, sexy.
An absolute pleasure of a film from start to finish.