A biopic of Paul Raymond. A good idea on paper,as indeed it started out,based on Paul Willets biography Members Only.But the process of distilling a life into 400 pages and then again into a film leads to a feeling that The Look of Love is merely a series of anecdotes strung together.
The story is told mainly in flashback,Raymond watching a documentary about himself and his daughter Debbie,for whom at the outset of the film we are informed things haven't panned out too well. It reminds me a bit of Milk, which the first time I saw I missed the first 5 minutes of and the denouement shocked me more than anyone else,perhaps the poignancy of Debbie's story shouldn't have been flagged up so obviously.
Debbie is played beautifully by Imogen Poots,for me the stand out actor.She has a radiant delicacy about her,you cannot help but feel sorry for her character being born into a family which would seemingly inevitably bring about her destruction.
Anna Friel plays Raymond's long-suffering wife.Initially she and Raymond appear in black and white,we all know the 50's was monochrome after all.Jean Bradley was from Nottinghamshire and I think a stronger accent would have lent more to the role.Friel's character has to age about 30 years in the course of the film,the only indication of which is she looks as grey in her last colour scene as she did in her b&w youth. Along the way we are treated to a gratuitous photo- shoot,Men Only mag montage,which having seen the film twice I think may exist in two different cuts. I hope they go with the one I saw in Glasgow.
The weakest female performance is Tamsin Egerton as Fiona Richmond. I wonder if her being the only protagonist still alive lead to the wishy-washiness of the part,there isn't much for Egerton to get her teeth into but what there is seems more filler and not prime beef.
So to Steve Coogan. I find it hard to believe Raymond did impressions of Sean Connery and Marlon Brando to "amuse" his friends. Isn't that what Coogan does? Over and over again. Raymond,I posit,a deeply unsympathetic character,is seen here very much through an Alan Partridge filter.The laughs generated seem to come from Coogan's ad libs rather than the wit and wisdom of Raymond.The films opening line to camera should have been 'I'm Paul Raymond,welcome to my world of erotic-ah-ha'
If Raymond was thought worthy of having his life visualised for posterity maybe a three part TV series would have been preferable,the rise in repressed post-war Britain,the tawdry pornucopic 70's plateau,the substance-fuelled decline and fall. I'm not sure if this version will find an audience tragi-comedies are hard to pull- off and I don't think this film has.
The story is told mainly in flashback,Raymond watching a documentary about himself and his daughter Debbie,for whom at the outset of the film we are informed things haven't panned out too well. It reminds me a bit of Milk, which the first time I saw I missed the first 5 minutes of and the denouement shocked me more than anyone else,perhaps the poignancy of Debbie's story shouldn't have been flagged up so obviously.
Debbie is played beautifully by Imogen Poots,for me the stand out actor.She has a radiant delicacy about her,you cannot help but feel sorry for her character being born into a family which would seemingly inevitably bring about her destruction.
Anna Friel plays Raymond's long-suffering wife.Initially she and Raymond appear in black and white,we all know the 50's was monochrome after all.Jean Bradley was from Nottinghamshire and I think a stronger accent would have lent more to the role.Friel's character has to age about 30 years in the course of the film,the only indication of which is she looks as grey in her last colour scene as she did in her b&w youth. Along the way we are treated to a gratuitous photo- shoot,Men Only mag montage,which having seen the film twice I think may exist in two different cuts. I hope they go with the one I saw in Glasgow.
The weakest female performance is Tamsin Egerton as Fiona Richmond. I wonder if her being the only protagonist still alive lead to the wishy-washiness of the part,there isn't much for Egerton to get her teeth into but what there is seems more filler and not prime beef.
So to Steve Coogan. I find it hard to believe Raymond did impressions of Sean Connery and Marlon Brando to "amuse" his friends. Isn't that what Coogan does? Over and over again. Raymond,I posit,a deeply unsympathetic character,is seen here very much through an Alan Partridge filter.The laughs generated seem to come from Coogan's ad libs rather than the wit and wisdom of Raymond.The films opening line to camera should have been 'I'm Paul Raymond,welcome to my world of erotic-ah-ha'
If Raymond was thought worthy of having his life visualised for posterity maybe a three part TV series would have been preferable,the rise in repressed post-war Britain,the tawdry pornucopic 70's plateau,the substance-fuelled decline and fall. I'm not sure if this version will find an audience tragi-comedies are hard to pull- off and I don't think this film has.