Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) Review

Nancy Stokes is a retired school teacher who is looking to add something more to her mundane life and eventually have good sex. She hires a young sex worker named Leo Grande, and has a hotel room all booked!

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When it comes to sex workers we always assume that it is a very male dominated area, in terms of paying for sex. It certainly seems to be more socially accepted that a man would do that, if that is worded correctly. I mean probably not, but we just don’t link it to women paying a man for sex. That would be more than flipped in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande as we explore an older woman searching for a sense of purpose and using sex as a way in which to do this.

The story and the relationship between Nancy and Leo is shown in different meetings and how things progress between the sessions. That is was not exactly what you may have been expecting to begin with as I know the narrative for myself went in a totally different direction from start to finish, but I mean that in the best possible manner. Thought provoking, with some extremely clever dialogue and moments between the pair. The film seriously feels like it was taken from a stage play and brought to the screen, which is not right at all because this is an original piece on film. (It could totally work on the stage).

Nancy we quickly find out has never in her life had an orgasm (and doesn’t expect to even with Leo) and had the same boring missionary style sex with her husband for over 30 years. No foreplay, no oral sex and quite frankly no pleasure at all. Therefore taking this step for Nancy was massive and she doesn’t even know if she can go ahead with it, I loved within the first meeting all of the questions she was firing at Leo as let’s face it those are the questions we all think about when it comes to someone selling themselves to someone else for sex.

Leo Grande, loves the business he had set up for himself and sees different challenges across different clients he has and comes into contact with. He is quick to remind Nancy that he is not being exploited at all because he is offering a service. It actually felt better that way right? Although I still kept coming back to the same question of what if he didn’t actually like the person who hired him, and what if he couldn’t actually get hard? I mean he states he never needs any pills to help with that, which did leave a couple of questions.

Being an ex-school teacher Nancy couldn’t help but write a list of things she wanted to do/try out for the first time and given her age makes you think how sad that she was stuck in a marriage that lacked any passion for so long. Her husband who had died two years earlier never wanted to try anything at all. With these meetings Nancy would experience everything she had been missing but also that she is allowed to appreciate her own body. That really is such an incredible message to take from this film, regardless of your gender you should feel comfortable within your own skin and having more passion and pleasure in your life is not something to dismiss.

Emma Thompson is a national treasure, she really is an amazing actress and goes all in completely with this role which was just a joy to watch from start to finish. I really do feel I need to mention the final moments in the film as standing totally naked with all of her clothes off was never going to be an easy thing to do. I truly believe though that moment and scene will help and inspire so many women, not necessarily to hire a sex worker but to be comfortable and confident within their own bodies. Daryl McCormack was very charming and quite frankly gorgeous as well, in top physical condition and certainly making everything even more appealing.