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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: O'TOOLE,PETER
EAN: 0786936712438
Format: Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Miramax
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 22, 2007
Running Time: 95 minutes
Sales Rank: 12692
Studio: Miramax
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
An aging actor allows his niece's daughter to move in and care for him but she seems to be more of a problem, until his best friend befriends her.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 22-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com:
Peter O'Toole adds another Great One to his list of indelible performances: as Maurice, a frail but defiantly horny London actor in his sunset, O'Toole lays bare his weathered face and sophisticated soul for a marvelous portrait of mortality. Maurice, who mostly hangs out counting pills and parsing obituaries with his fellow old-trouper Ian (Leslie Phillips), is roused to play Pygmalion one final time... not on stage, but in life, as Ian's gauche, callow niece (Jodie Whittaker) comes to live with her uncle. It would be very easy to turn this set-up into a heartwarming drama, but screenwriter Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette) has never been one to warm hearts. Unless it's on his own terms. As Maurice takes his Venus under his frail wing and imparts a few old-school instructions to this junk-culture lass, Kureishi and director Roger Michell hit just the right notes of clumsiness, grace, and regret. Everybody's good in the film; Jodie Whittaker does nicely by the task of creating a rather ordinary young woman, and Vanessa Redgrave turns up as Maurice's patient, long-suffering ex (about whom there is nothing ordinary). But it's O'Toole's show, and the grand old actor gives a performance without a hint of grandness, except where it might fit. When he sighs a valedictory, 'There really isn't anything else,' you know a life's experiences and mistakes are distilled in the wisdom. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Flawless!
One of the dearest, wittiest, most beautiful films of all time. Peter O'Toole is a master, Leslie Phillips is a "find." I adored it. I wondered if I would like it because so many critics were put off by the "dirty old man" theme, but that is really insulting to elderly people. O'Toole likes the tough young girl, expelled from and shamed by her family. He awakens her to her beauty and worth; she keeps him alive. Each has a self-centered agenda, which is exactly as it should be, and keeps this exquisite film from being maudlin. Loved it to the max and recommend it to one and all.
Rating:  - Fresh perspective on the tragedy of growing old - but the depiction of women is troubling
"Venus" explores the strange relationship between an aging actor (Peter O'Toole) and a "lost" young lady, newly arrived in London. They both "need" each other in their own way. The story is both an unsettling male fantasy and a fresh meditation on the tragedy of growing old. O'Toole is brilliant as the old man - but one can't help feeling somewhat troubled by the rather degrading depiction of the young lady in this film.
Rating:  - Venus-Peter O'Toole as a Dirty Old Man Out of Control
I think I can be brief with this review as I don't wish to spend too much time or emotion over it. The story is a pathetic romp through the mud and I can't believe that O'Toole would permit himself to portray a dirty old man in heat.
Those of you who are long time fans of O'Toole would probably do well to avoid this film as I have been an admirer of his work for my entire life and felt badly for him after viewing it.
Those Amazon reviewers awarding 3 stars or less to this movie agree with me and I don't give a dam what Hollywood said about this film.
Rating: - The tantalizing feminine alluring!
Venus is an emblematic movie that deals with the human condition of a respectable actor, beloved and loved by many women in the past who lives on the verge of the forgetfulness, isolated and imprisoned between his memories (Like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard) ; nevertheless Maurice is still an avid observer of the human condition and from time to time makes secondary roles.
The arrival of a provincial and alluring young woman, who comes for the first time in her life to London, niece of his best friend, will arouse for both of them new horizons of unsuspected consequences, she is the unreachable muse for him but he has the spelling magic of the word; once more the wisdom and experience face with the missing energies of an unbridled youth that is aware it has all the time of the world for acting and mistaking, on the other side of the street, Maurice is well conscious the time is a no removable resource and enjoys every single moment of his existence, due a painful prostrate cancer may annihilate him in any moment.
However, the approach of the film is far to be tragic; on the contrary, it's a celebration of life a song for these splendid and irreversible moments that must be lived with Dionysian intensity, no matter what the rest of the world think.
Peter O`Toole gives an astonishing and vivid performance as the dying actor; and Roger Mitchell shows us his skills and superb god taste behind the camera, who works out as a peeping tom; needless ... Read More
Rating: - The Twilight of the Mod
When the Academy Awards wanted to give Peter O'Toole an honorary Oscar, he initially refused, saying that he still felt he was quite in the running for a Best Actor and didn't want to ruin his chances with any "lifetime achievement" awards.
I wonder if the makers of "Venus" were listening. It certainly looks that way: the role of Maurice appears tailored for O'Toole in every scene...and it worked. O'Toole received another Oscar nomination for Best Actor (he lost to Forrest Whitaker).
I remember reading in Richard Burton's biography that both he and O'Toole shared the same record: most Academy Award nominations without ever winning. 7 or 8, I believe. So now O'Toole has 8 or 9, nearly 25 years after Burton's death.
It's a great role for a great actor...but I don't know if it's a great movie for everyone. Some of it worked, some of it might offend or annoy people. (I've noticed some reviews take O'Toole's age and lecherous advances to task. I have to admit that some of the scenes made me uncomfortable: the sight of a very elderly man trying to bribe kisses and gropes from a very young girl, for one! If you didn't keep in mind that this was Peter O'Toole, Lawrence of Arabia, the 60's swinger from "What's New, Pussycat?", you might think he was just another very dirty old man).
The movie does succeed in the weird desires and awkward moments of an old man enchanted by a young girl. She's hardly deserving at first (which was interesting) and I felt ... Read More
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