'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande': Emma Thompson sex comedy is honest look at intimacy

Emma Thompson hires a sex worker. That’s all you need know to be intrigued by “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.” That enticement immediately draws you into a dramedy in which Thompson’s 60-something Nancy Stokes and Daryl McCormack’s young stud for hire dance around each other’s lack of fulfillment before discovering the transformative power of sexual pleasure.

It’s a sly, nifty trick comedian Katy Brand pulls off in writing what is essentially a two-hander unfolding almost exclusively inside an upscale London hotel room. And it’s one director Sophie Hyde (“Animals”) smartly frames as a boxing match in which the suite serves as a ring spotlighting two desperate sparring partners in search of each other’s vulnerabilities before – bloody and spent – finally landing the knockout punch. Advancing the analogy, Brand and Hyde stage it over four rounds, absent any referee to prevent their combatants from punching below the belt, so to speak.

And if, in the end, escort and client do more talking than doing, so be it. It’s the foreplay that we’ve come to enjoy, as two terrific actors bare their characters' souls, as well as their bodies. They have you laughing one minute, tearful the next, as they share a bed laden with guilt and regret.

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Of the two, Thompson’s Nancy is by far the most repressed. A widowed religious education teacher, she quips that nuns have had more and better sex than her. On second thought, she's not kidding. McCormack’s Leo, we learn, is the only man she’s shagged outside her deceased, dead-in-the-sack hubby. To hear her tell it, it’s almost an act of God that she has two adult children: a son majoring in chemistry, whom she labels “boring”; and a marginally debauched daughter living in an artist colony in Barcelona. Worse, Nancy claims to have never experienced an orgasm.

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In sharing these pathetic details, Thompson proves a master of the dead-pan. She’s delightfully cynical in her delivery, yet subtle enough to allow sufficient room for us to sympathize with a woman who has most assuredly never “had it all.” And as Nancy spills, Leo evolves as every woman’s dream: a man who listens. Yes, he really does! It’s enough to make us menfolk hang our heads in shame. “We can just talk,” he tells his not-so-eager client, as she begins to question the morality of “purchasing” another human being.

McCormack (“Peaky Blinders”) renders the hunky, compassionate Leo so tender, so caring, so wonderful, he risks entering the realm of too good to be true. Eventually, you realize we’ve penetrated “Pretty Woman” territory, embodied by the proverbial hooker with the heart of gold. It comes at precisely the same point you realize the film’s marked implausibility factor. Yet, you continue watching, sucked deeper into the inner lives of two very appealing people transacting the most personal of business mergers.

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But is this going anywhere interesting? Be patient. It is. And when it somewhat ploddingly gets there, I can guarantee you’ll be moved by what Nancy and Leo learn about themselves and the errancy of the sheltered lives they’ve led. At that juncture, "Good Luck” reveals itself to be not just an exchange of bodily fluids, but an exchange of ideas offering insights into the power of intimacy and human connection.

The takeaway, at least for me, is that a transformative relationship need not be long term or romantic. It merely requires two people who are willing to listen, nurture and simply make themselves available. It’s the film’s heart and soul.

'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande'

Rated: R for graphic nudity, some language and sexual content

Cast: Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack

Director: Sophie Hyde

Writer: Katy Brand

Runtime: 97 minutes

Where to watch: Hulu, starting June 17

Grade: B

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Emma Thompson plays sexually frustrated widow in Hulu's 'Leo Grande'