Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Every fortnight Thomas Caldwell joins Jacinta Parsons to review a film. Here's his thoughts on the Emma Thompson film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.

In increasingly puritanical times where sex and even mature conversations about sex are almost absent from mainstream cinema, it is so refreshing to be gifted a film that treats the topic with the respect and joy that it deserves. English screenplay writer Katy Brand and Australian director Sophie Hyde so expertly handle the material that the end result is a film that champions sexual expression while also reclaiming it from the realm of titillation and pornography. Even later in the film when Leo's facade slips and his emotions become less filtered, he still comes across as a much welcome and realistic alternative to the brooding and repressed male protagonists of so many romance films. While it is based on a fantasy with neither character using their real name, a lot of what they do in the room is grounded in the reality of who they are and their past experiences. Sex in cinema is almost as old as cinema itself, and intrinsically tied to the history and evolution of filmmaking. The film also explores issues such as the boundaries of a sex worker/client arrangement, the right to be desired, the difference between love and lust, and the role shame and hypocrisy play in society when it comes to expressions of sexual desire.