Good Luck to You, Leo Grande — A Review

Celebrated actor Emma Thompson and up-and-comer Daryl McCormack shine in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, a film about a repressed middle-aged woman who hires a sex worker in the hope of discovering the sexual pleasure and fulfillment she’s been missing all her life.

Written and created by Katy Brand and directed by Sophie Hyde, the story takes a thoughtful and open approach to a number of typically taboo or shunned topics including sex work, body image, female pleasure, and aging and sexuality.

Nancy Stokes (Thompson) is a retired religious education teacher and a widow of two years who never experienced sexual pleasure in over thirty years of married life. She hires young and attractive escort Leo Grande (McCormack) for an evening at a hotel, but her nerves quickly interfere with her intentions. Her mix of fear, shame, desire, and anxiety make her somewhat of a neurotic livewire and also deeply relatable as she elicits the spectrum of emotions that come with being vulnerable with a new partner. Leo meets her wherever she’s at with steady (professional) calm, giving her a safe space for her emotions and thought process even when she is sometimes insensitive.

Leo’s approach with Nancy, alternately tender and playful, never pushy, encourages her trust in him. However, we sometimes wonder how much of his character is real and how much is the persona he’s built for his professional work. Nancy never seems to wonder, and her naivety about the business lands her in hot water when her desire for a real connection with Leo in addition to a sexual one crosses hard boundaries. As they attempt to reconcile, they must come to terms with themselves as well as each other.

The film is broken up into a series of meetings between Nancy and Leo in the same hotel room. Each time, they learn more about each other’s personal lives just as Nancy discovers more about herself and what brings her joy sexually. The pacing of each session is carefully frenetic, following Nancy’s lead as she zigzags between topics, emotions and intentions. It allows each meeting to be delightfully different, keeping us engaged and also invested in each one.

The limited setting and minimalist cast work really well, allowing for more focus on intimacy, dialogue, and exploration of character. Of course, the success of that strategy relies heavily on the actors and their dynamic. Thankfully, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is in excellent hands with Thompson and McCormack. Not only are they adept with a great script, but they have fantastic chemistry, sexually and otherwise. They exude a solid foundation of trust between actors that encourages each other to be vulnerable and go all in. We see this in how Thompson and McCormack allow each other space to shine through their respective onscreen emotional highs and lows, as well as through the constant back-and-forth exchanges.

The actors also provide effective balance to their characters’ interactions. Thompson’s repressed and nervous energy as Nancy is nicely offset by McCormack’s steadying calm as Leo. At the same time, they also convey that Leo is less confident and Nancy more brave than they each realize. While Nancy offers perhaps too much information and opinions at times, Leo is (naturally, given his profession) more guarded, but he lets down his walls a fraction at a time as Nancy continues to ask for more from him. It’s a wonderful give and take between the actors and a pleasure to watch.

Nancy and Leo’s final meeting is a little too self-congratulatory about the characters’ individual journeys, but overall the film manages to wrap up in a satisfying way.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

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