jodie whittaker Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's difficult to pull off May-December romances in movies, mainly because they're so creepy. As often as not, the movie doesn't even acknowledge the age difference, casting men in their fifties opposite girls in their twenties, with nothing in mind but the potential box office returns. If the movie does acknowledge the gap, it's usually to make some kind of wry statement, most famously in Nabokov's Lolita, adapted for the screen twice, by Stanley Kubrick in 1962 and Adrian Lyne in 1997.

The new movie Venus miraculously manages a deft balance of all this, and on top of it, the age difference is a staggering fifty years, between19 year-old Jessie (Jodie Whittaker) and 70-something Maurice (Peter O'Toole). Of course, this is no traditional romance, but more of an odd, tender friendship, not unlike that of Lost in Translation (2003).

A working London actor busy with plays and television, Maurice loves to spend time with his old colleague Ian (Leslie Phillips). Their dryly hilarious bickering sets the tone for the rest of the film. Ian anticipates a visit from his grand-niece, and expects that she will begin caring for his worldly needs, such as cooking and cleaning. Of course, the girl that actually arrives is more of a modern teenager, Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), with modern teenage ennui, cynicism and selfishness. While these qualities drive Ian into a fit of pique, they actually intrigue the more playful Maurice. He slowly engages her in conversation, and his way of bluntly telling the truth (there's no point in lying at his age) does not repulse her. Later, he impulsively offers to buy her a drink, and she discovers that, as an actor, he's "a little bit" famous.

Odds and ends from Monday:

• Billy Burke (Ladder 49) has signed on to star in Jennifer Chambers Lynch's (Yes, that's daughter to director David Lynch) Surveillance, her second directorial effort following 1993's Boxing Helena (Yes, that's fifteen years since her last film). Pic follows an FBI agent who gets help tracking a serial killer from the lunatic's would-be-victims. Production is set to begin in or around October.
• Newbie Jodie Whittaker and Viggo Mortenson will take lead roles in Good, an adaptation from the award-winning play. Directed by Vincente Amorin, story revolves around a German professor who, during the 1930s, is seduced (I take it flowers and a goodnight kiss weren't involved) by the Nazi party. Yeah, it's safe to say things didn't go well there from then on out.
• Shortly after the death of animal lover Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin, the rumor mill jumped all over Russell Crowe saying the actor was interested in playing Irwin in a possible biopic. However, Crowe shot down the reports (in a rather absurd Crowe-like way) by saying, "That's one of those appalling pieces of sh*t that's come out of the press. While my friend's body is still warm, I'm being accused of doing commerce over his grave, and it absolutely disgusts me." He then picked up Irwin's coffin and chucked it at the reporter. I mean, so they say ...

Maurice (Peter O'Toole) and Ian (Leslie Phillips), veteran actors and lifelong friends, are getting on in years, so Ian is having his grand-niece come to live with him and help take care of him. When the young lady arrives, however, Ian finds himself in a state of shock. Far from the demure young woman of his imagination who would fawn over his every needs, Jessie (newcomer Jodie Whittaker) is a rude, sullen girl who never seems to stop eating junk food, pours milk into his lemon tea, and can't even cook a nice piece of halibut to save her life. Maurice, meanwhile, has just been diagnosed with prostrate cancer -- a fact he conceals from his friends -- and he views Jessie in an entirely different light. Maurice likes Jessie in spite of -- perhaps, one suspects, because of -- her rough edges, and takes her under his wing, escorting her to the theater and the museum and encouraging her to read classic literature.