Product Description

Academy Award® nominee Peter O’Toole (2006 Best Actor) leads a powerful cast to deliver a charming and poignant portrayal of Maurice, an aging veteran actor who becomes absolutely taken with Jessie – the grandniece of his closest friend. When Maurice tries to soften the petulant and provincial young girl with the benefit of his wisdom and London culture, their give-and-take surprises both Maurice and Jessie as they discover what they don’t know about themselves. Featuring brilliant performances from a superb supporting cast, VENUS is a witty and wise celebration of how the greatest lessons in life can come from the most unlikely places.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16230 in DVD
• Brand: Venus
• Released on: 2007-05-22
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.com
Peter O'Toole adds another Great One to his list of indelible performances: as Maurice, a frail but defiantly horny London actor in his sunset, O'Toole lays bare his weathered face and sophisticated soul for a marvelous portrait of mortality. Maurice, who mostly hangs out counting pills and parsing obituaries with his fellow old-trouper Ian (Leslie Phillips), is roused to play Pygmalion one final time... not on stage, but in life, as Ian's gauche, callow niece (Jodie Whittaker) comes to live with her uncle. It would be very easy to turn this set-up into a heartwarming drama, but screenwriter Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette) has never been one to warm hearts. Unless it's on his own terms. As Maurice takes his Venus under his frail wing and imparts a few old-school instructions to this junk-culture lass, Kureishi and director Roger Michell hit just the right notes of clumsiness, grace, and regret. Everybody's good in the film; Jodie Whittaker does nicely by the task of creating a rather ordinary young woman, and Vanessa Redgrave turns up as Maurice's patient, long-suffering ex (about whom there is nothing ordinary). But it's O'Toole's show, and the grand old actor gives a performance without a hint of grandness, except where it might fit. When he sighs a valedictory, "There really isn't anything else," you know a life's experiences and mistakes are distilled in the wisdom. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

One of the Most Amazing Movies Ever
I fell in love with this film immediately. It is one of the most touching and powerful films I have ever had the pleasure to watch. Other than the impeccable performance of the cast, this film offers a sense of timelessness to its viewers because it focuses upon the relationship between Jessie and Maurice, who are at opposite ends of the human life spectrum. Regardless of the age difference, they offer each other a unique type of companionship and love in the end. It is a film that is sad yet beautiful because it portrays both characters as being capable of both selflessness and selfishness in the end. It mantains its reality which is refreshing for a film of this millenium. I personally enjoyed it and it is, as I said, one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen.

Life Affirming
What a beautiful little film. Peter O' Tools character, Maurice, is so full of life despite his rather frail appearance and as excentric as one would imagine O' Toll himself to be.

For anyone concerned with growing old and eventually dying this movie provides some light at the end of the tunnel.

So much more than mere sentiment...
I admit; I have no idea why I saw this movie. The film didn't look appealing to me and the accolades it racked up I just chucked up to pure sentimentality, especially when in regards to Peter O'Toole's Oscar nomination. The film came on Cinemax the other night though, and so I decided to give it a try.

Wow.

I will never just automatically dismiss anything as pure sentiment again, for Peter O'Toole is flawless here and delivers what may be his finest performance of all time. In all honesty, I couldn't believe that this man was doing what he was doing with this character. Peter O'Toole has been lauded time and time again as one of our greatest actors who has yet to win an Oscar, and yet I have never felt that his losing streak was a huge crime given his competition (although how anyone beat his `Laurence of Arabia' performance is still beyond me). His portrayal of Maurice in `Venus' has changed my opinion of him entirely though, so much so that I am livid at the fact that he has yet to win an `acting' Oscar.

Let's get on with the film review.

`Venus' is in reference to the pet name Maurice gives to Jessie, the neice of his close friend Ian. Jessie is visiting her Uncle and soon finds herself in Maurice's naughty thoughts, and since he is elderly and lonely she starts to cater to him in exchange for his company and affection. She enjoys his time and he enjoys hers, albeit for different reasons. Despite the somewhat disgusting nature of their relationship, both O'Toole and Whittaker work to keep their characters sympathetic and understandable, flaunting not only their faults but also their humanity.

The script is extremely well crafted, giving every actor enough to work with. The story is simple yet meaningful and the dialog is rich and intriguing. I never thought that watching a few old men converse would hold my interest, but the bantering between Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips prove to be some of my favorite moments of the film.

The acting is superb on all fronts, but O'Toole and Phillips by far deserve the most praise. O'Toole manages to make his character relatable even though he is detestable in parts. He captures his characters lonely desperation that helps deaden us to his carnal fascination. Phillips is a cinematic dream, delivering line after line with precision and comedic brilliance. He's like a make version of Kathy Bates, providing comedic relief with reckless abandon. Jodie Whittaker is also astonishing as Jessie, but her character at times proves to be more of a prop for Maurice's development.

In the end I have to say that `Venus' proved to be so much more than I ever imagined it would be. With a marvelously astute script and a marvelously capable cast, `Venus' stands tall as one of the best films of 2006. It's a shame to me that the Academy chose such mediocre films for their shortlist (none of which come close to my top ten) when they had so many beautifully complete films to chose from. `Venus' alone is far more worthy of the Best Picture title than any of the five films Oscar chose to honor with nominations.