"Venus" April 18, 2007

Rated R: Language, brief nudity, adult subject matter

RT: 1:35
Academy Award nominee for best actor, Peter O'Toole stars in this moving story of an elderly actor and his somewhat questionable relationship with a teenage girl. Maurice (O'Toole) and his friend Ian (Leslie Phillips) are two classy curmudgeons whiling away their hours in coffee shops and at the theater, but their routine is thrown for a loop when Ian's niece's daughter Jessie (Jodie Whittaker) is sent from the country to act as his nurse. Maurice befriends her, getting her a gig as an art model, and along the way he openly expresses the lust she has awakened in him. When she starts to allow him small pleasures--like kissing her bare shoulders or caressing her hands--the film enters into some uncomfortable, complicated territory, but it is deftly navigated by Hanif Kureishi's sharp screenplay, and O'Toole's heartbreaking performance. VENUS is in many ways a quiet film and it often relies on single shots of O'Toole's weary blue eyes to convey the many complexities within the story. VENUS is a very raw look at growing old, and the aches and pains, both emotional and physical, that accompany a man near the end of his life. It is an honest, moving portrait of human desire, and how it can both beat us down and lift us up--no matter the age.

Official Website: http://www.beverlyartcenter.org