Big Picture Big Sound

Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) has lived a life of routine and regimen for nearly her entire 50-plus years. She has been a widow for two years, after 31 years of marriage to her husband. She has two children who are off living their own lives, is a schoolteacher, and doesn't seem to have much connection outside of her small bubble. She's ready - or at least she think she is - to change that up. That's when she meets Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack).

Leo Grande is a sex worker who Nancy hires to meet her in a hotel. She's claims she's ready to find pleasure again, but once Leo arrives to her room, she immediately thinks it's a bad plan. A lot of their encounters are false starts and mostly end with Leo having to listen to Nancy panic about the current state of her life. Sure, she's paying him to be there, but Leo seems genuinely empathetic to Nancy and happy to just listen to her talk (not without a few nudges of encouragement towards the pleasure part of their meetings).

"Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" is a sweet movie about connection that allows Thompson to fully inhabit a three-dimensional person. She doesn't feel she should want the desires she has, but as Leo tries to remind her, there's nothing wrong with wanting companionship.

Director Sophie Hyde reportedly shot the movie in less than 20 days and, except for a scene at the end, the movie takes place entirely in Nancy's hotel room over the course of different sessions. It's the kind of creative and independent storytelling we should expect, as productions try to work around the various pandemic restrictions. It's hard to feel optimistic about the state of filmmaking these days, but there is some hope we will continue to see small movies like "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande," which are made because of the pandemic and not about it (there's been plenty of that already).

Thompson and McCormack have such a lovely, fine-tuned chemistry as two people who are in such different places in their lives but have more common ground than you would expect. The movie navigates their relationship through a sex farce, comedic banter, and moments of touching truth with great ease, and the performers meet Katy Brand's screenplay every step of the way.

"Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" delicately tries to tackle a lot in just over 90 minutes, including its effort to destigmatize Leo's job as a sex worker. Nancy hires Leo for a service, but the movie is about two people who really needed to find someone to be honest with and receive no judgment in return. It's a testament to Hyde that she was able to capture that story without taking any of the predictable or obvious routes that a lesser movie would.