Venus

Everyone gets older and Peter O' Toole isn't any different. He stars as Maurice, a veteran actor who is content playing roles as dying fathers on Soap Operas and frequenting the local coffee shop with his actor pal, Ian (Leslie Phillips). They talk about the old days and what ails each other.

Ian's niece Jesse, played by Jodie Whittaker, comes to stay with him. A teenager who's "rough around the edges". She drinks, smokes and wants to look for a career in Modelling. Ian is fearful of his age and isn't quite sure that he's healthy enough to look after her. He asks Maurice to watch over her instead.

Maurice is feeling young again being with Jesse. He takes her to the theatre and buys her earrings. Maurice even gets her a job modelling. Maurice is falling in love with her.

It's not until their age gap catches up with them that Maurice realises that just like the bones in his body an old man's heart gets broken easier with age.

I had a hard time liking this film. It wasn't the actors and it wasn't the direction, but Venus was too much too close to another film called,"On Golden Pond" Henry Fonda played the now cliched,"old man" role. He won an Oscar for it. It's a great film, a really great film.

Now, I'm not really comparing the two films because Venus is close to Lolita also, but not exactly. There's a sadness to Maurice.

The real sadness is actors like Peter O'Toole won't be around forever and watching him grace the audience with his skills in Venus was the real gem.

***1/2
http://video.movies.go.com/venus/

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