Review of Personal Services

If you find a poor working - class woman's gradual slide into prostitution funny then feel free to laugh your way through "Personal Services".Cynthia Painter made the best of the bad options available to her(sh#g or starve basically)but no way in real life was "fun" an option. The rest is mostly a myth(albeit a self - serving one)propagated by the Red Tops when Ms Painter's business finally came to their official notice. Late 20th century British sexual hypocrisy is exposed to absolutely no one's surprise and the Judicial System is shown to be open to corruption or so Ms Painter maintains,but then, as an earlier celebrity prostitute Ms Mandy Rice - Davis might say,she would - wouldn't she. Miss Julie Walters - an estimable actress perhaps slightly over - exposed on British television - plays Ms Painter in her customary no nonsense I'm working class and proud of it style.She is at her best in the movie's more serious moments before giving it her all as the wise elderly tart with a heart which was presumably how Ms Painter wanted to portray herself. Men are shown to be mostly weak or crooked or both,barely getting a fair crack of the whip unless it is wielded by Miss Walters or one of her acolytes. The whole media - induced "scandal" about the "People's Madame" was a storm in a teacup and soon forgotten in the newspapers' never - ending hunt for fresh sleaze."Personal Services" too was a bit of a nine days' wonder and Miss Walters herself has gone on to better things.What reputation it has is as a sex comedy but there isn't much sex in it and it isn't funny.Go figure.