Movie review: Venus

By Chris Turner -
On a whim, I rented the movie Venus on a recent Saturday night, and it was certainly a secret treat for both Tiffani and me. Among the known actors, there is a lecherous Peter O'Toole and a remarkably un-vain Vanessa Redgrave, while the unknowns include Leslie Phillips (to us at least, unknown, yet his acting career dates to 1938) and newcomer Jodie Whittaker. I would probably classify Venus as a small movie, despite the varied scene locations, because of the concentration of characters: Redgrave has, at most, three scenes, while Phillips, O'Toole, and Whittaker make up the bulk of the narrative. And each of the character's complex emotions and motives, the acting, the story, even the remarkably brusque language make for a small, yet moving film.

The movie wound down around 11:30 P.M., well after our bedtime, yet we were still moved to discuss it at that late hour, and both of us were thinking of the stories and characters as we drifted off to sleep. Over coffee the next morning, Tiff admitted to dreaming about the movie and we lapsed into discussing it again as watched the DVD's special features, the featurette, before returning it to the video store.

Highly recommended.


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