Venus (2006) Critic Reviews

Told with wit, genuine poignancy and all kinds of humor, Venus charts the unlikely relationship between a man in his 70s and a young woman more than half a century his junior.Read the full review

Venus is rollickingly funny at times -- but there's an undercurrent of extraordinarily clear-eyed sadness.Read the full review

O'Toole is frail and probably won't make many more movies. So Venus is pitched partly as a fond farewell to a beloved artist, and his whole beautiful generation.Read the full review

Since the movie is about desire -- not so much for sex as for the vitality and surprise that sex can provide -- it is also about power. Few writers can match Mr. Kureishi's knowing wit on this subject, or his skill at dissecting the shifting dynamics of longing and domination.Read the full review

Director Roger Michell and writer Hanif Kureishi take a deeper, edifying interest in the moral ambiguities that arise between Maurice and Jessie. And thanks to our warm investment in both characters, we're more than willing to sign up for this existential ride. We allow this relationship -- and the movie -- to take us places we'd never usually go.Read the full review

Awash in terrific performances.Read the full review

The suggestion that Peter O'Toole is playing some version of his real self in Venus adds a bittersweet poignancy to this quietly affecting British drama.Read the full review

Peter O'Toole's tour-de-force performance makes Venus a movie not to be missed.Read the full review

O'Toole gives a staggering performance -- fearless, defiantly untamed and in its own way a work of art.Read the full review