80
Maurice, the protagonist of Venus, is a suit lovingly tailored to O'Toole's ravaged but commanding frame.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
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.
90
A heartbreaking comedy that is simultaneously funny and sad, raunchy and sweet, funky and elegiac. These fresh, unexpected juxtapositions are a specialty of the writer Hanif Kureishi ("My Beautiful Laundrette"), a sworn enemy of cliché.
70
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Venus is worth seeing for the scenes between O’Toole and Vanessa Redgrave as the woman he abandoned--the mother of his children.
75
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
This is a brave movie because it addresses a subject Hollywood feels uncomfortable about.
80
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
Awash in terrific performances.
100
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
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.
83
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
The screenplay is by Hanif Kureishi, who wrote "The Mother" for Michell and also scripted the classic "My Beautiful Laundrette." He has a feeling for outsiders.
75
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
O'Toole gives a staggering performance -- fearless, defiantly untamed and in its own way a work of art.
70
Genuinely funny, randy and moving by turns, breezily enjoyable throughout.