THE LOOK OF LOVE
Director : Michael Winterbottom
Year : 2013
Genre : Comedy
Rating : ****
Reuniting comedian Steve Coogan with director Michael Winterbottom for the third time, 'The Look Of Love' is a hugely entertaining, if not politically incorrect biopic of the Soho pornographer and entrepeneur Paul Raymond. Co starring Imogen Poots, Tamsin Egerton, Anna Friel and a heaping helping of some of the best talents working in British comedy including Chris Addison, David Walliams and Miles Jupp while also featuring cameos from Dara 'O Briain, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas and Simon Bird, 'The Look Of Love' is a hilarious and provocative telling of the life of the man once known as the richest in Britain. Famed for his gentlemen's clubs and 'special interest' magazines, Raymond became the one of the most famous and controversial men in England right up until his death in 2008 and the film doesn't shy away from not only showing both the ups and downs of the career of the empresario but also the pros and cons of the pornography industry itself. Eye opening but ultimately tragic, 'The Look Of Love' is a brilliant retelling of the life of a man who would change the face of Soho forever and whose name would be synonymous with naked women, excess and the vice of success.
From his humble days as a mind reader on Clacton Pier, Paul Raymond would become one of the most impressive and influential men in Britain; thanks to his huge pornography empire and penchant for erotica. Hugely wealthy, hugely popular with the press and hugely popular with the ladies, Raymond lived a decadent life of sex, drugs and excess. But as his archaic life begins to take an effect on his personal life, Raymond begins to realise that his actions has forever changed his relationship with his wife, his children and his friends and that maybe money isn't everything.
Michael Winterbottom has become known as one of the best and most controversial directors working in British cinema today and while some of his works such as 'Everyday' are beautifully told fables, others such can reek of pretention and exploitation such as the explicit and over - the - top '9 Songs'. 'The Look Of Love' is certainly explicit and there isn't one minute in the film that doesn't have at least one naked woman in the frame. However while many would call this mysogynist and sexist, I feel that the graphic nudity and sexually explicit dialogue all help to surround us in the excessive world of Paul Raymond and the pornography industry as a whole. In fact, the movie shows us so many bare breasts and buttocks that I became numb to the initially scintillating material and it quickly became obvious that the nudity just adds to the wild and excessive aesthetics of the movie. Directed with a great deal of care and attention, Winterbottom never portrays the nudity as exploitative or necessarily sexist; it is just a key part of the overall story of Paul Raymond and it would have been wrong for the movie and disrespectful to his legacy not to show this. 'The Look Of Love' is rated 18 for a reason and I am sure that with a mature and open minded audience, the graphic material shouldn't pose any problems at all.
From his humble days as a mind reader on Clacton Pier, Paul Raymond would become one of the most impressive and influential men in Britain; thanks to his huge pornography empire and penchant for erotica. Hugely wealthy, hugely popular with the press and hugely popular with the ladies, Raymond lived a decadent life of sex, drugs and excess. But as his archaic life begins to take an effect on his personal life, Raymond begins to realise that his actions has forever changed his relationship with his wife, his children and his friends and that maybe money isn't everything.
Michael Winterbottom has become known as one of the best and most controversial directors working in British cinema today and while some of his works such as 'Everyday' are beautifully told fables, others such can reek of pretention and exploitation such as the explicit and over - the - top '9 Songs'. 'The Look Of Love' is certainly explicit and there isn't one minute in the film that doesn't have at least one naked woman in the frame. However while many would call this mysogynist and sexist, I feel that the graphic nudity and sexually explicit dialogue all help to surround us in the excessive world of Paul Raymond and the pornography industry as a whole. In fact, the movie shows us so many bare breasts and buttocks that I became numb to the initially scintillating material and it quickly became obvious that the nudity just adds to the wild and excessive aesthetics of the movie. Directed with a great deal of care and attention, Winterbottom never portrays the nudity as exploitative or necessarily sexist; it is just a key part of the overall story of Paul Raymond and it would have been wrong for the movie and disrespectful to his legacy not to show this. 'The Look Of Love' is rated 18 for a reason and I am sure that with a mature and open minded audience, the graphic material shouldn't pose any problems at all.
While our attitudes towards him remain mostly ambivalent through the course of the film, Steve Coogan is brilliant as the slick and quick thinking Raymond, whose charm and charisma can draw women into the pages of his magazines, onto his stages and into his bed. However, while he may have money, girls and wealth, his personal life is shattered beyond recognition and as the film plays on, we see that while he may have everything, he doesn't have love. We all know thanks to the hilarious character of Alan Partridge that Steve Coogan is a brilliantly talented comedian, but 'The Look Of Love' also shows us that he is a very good actor in scenes of heartbreak, tragedy and personal loss. While his performance may not win him any Academy Award nominations, I would not be surprised if Coogan's name appeared in the longlist for the 2014 BAFTAS because his portrayal of this frankly, unlikeable man is done with care, respect and charm. I never saw Alan Partridge in his performance, I saw Paul Raymond.
The supporting cast are also very good and each one shows us the different sides to both Raymond and the industry. Chris Addison is uncharacteristically creepy as a photographer for one of Raymonds magazines, Anna Friel is convincing as Raymond's long suffering wife and Imogen Poots gives a pitch perfect performance as his damaged but ambitious daughter. Playing Raymond's main love interest in the beautiful Tamsin Egerton, who brings a heart and soul to the face of the pornographic magazines and shows. Not at all victimised or exploited, Egerton seems perfectly comfortable with her nudity and the fact that she can act so well in this compromising position shows us just how gifted she is as an actress. While the cameos are fun to watch, they do not really seem to add anything to the film except providing a 'Where's Wally' experience for those who are a fan of British comedy. Their performances aren't bad, but they do detract from the narrative and pull us out of the story for a few seconds. However, the overall thread of the story is told so well that we can overlook these few moments and become involved once more in the fascinating story and diverse characterisations.
The question of the validity and necessity for pornography is never really answered in 'The Look Of Love' and I think that despite it's best efforts to balance our ethics and our values with both points of view, it really does depend on your own beliefs what you will get from the film. I myself believe in free speech and I am totally against censorship so a movie that questions the morals of the industry and tries to bring the argument back down to Earth will always interest me. It is credit to Winterbottom that 'The Look Of Love' never fully shows it's own ethical values and relies on our own emotions and beliefs to come to a final decision. To some, the movie will be a debaucharous affair; full of sex, drugs and nudity. To others like myself, 'The Look Of Love' is a funny, poignant and provocative look at a subject matter that still poses problems in our culture today all told through the hugely interesting and eye opening story of a man who may have been forgotten but whose legacy still lives with us today.
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