Carolina Giammetta, Cathryn Bradshaw, Jodie Whittaker

"Venus" tells the story of Maurice and Ian, a pair of veteran actors whose comfortable daily routine is disrupted by the arrival of Ian's grand-niece, Jessie. Maurice takes the teenager under his wing...( read more  read more... ), but is surprised to discover how very little he actually knows now that his own life is drawing to a close.

Flixster Users

74% liked it

8,132 ratings

Critics

89% liked it

144 critics

R, 1 hr. 35 min.

Directed by: Roger Michell

Release Date: December 21, 2006

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DVD Release Date: May 22, 2007

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Stats: 1,441 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,441)


  • October 1, 2009
    A fantastic film! Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips's chemistry is superb! O'Toole should have won the Oscar! Vanessa Redgrave's performance is also very touching. Highly recommended!
  • March 20, 2009
    Not at all what I expected, but that's a good thing since this movie had me laughing almost nonstop. Peter O'Toole had his heart broken again by just missing out on finally winning Best Actor for his role as a dirty old man who falls in love with his best friend's daughter's niec...( read more)e, whom he affectionately calls Venus. Maurice is a veteran actor who is somewhat rapidly dying, though you wouldn't know it from how young Jessie makes his feel. A very good movie with a lot of funny, albeit dirty dialogue.
  • February 20, 2009
    if i wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt i'd give it a three, but i don't want! o'toole is a legend and redgrave is apt support yet the film never really goes anywhere except into the zone of boundless swearing. don't get me wrong... i like swearing. i like seeing swearing...( read more) in films... but here you can see the actors are just doing it for the sake of it. if i wanted to hear the word cunt for an hour and a half i'd just get drunk witless in my room. this movie is like a regular night in!
  • July 19, 2008
    Venus is the story of how two aging actors (Peter O'Toole and Leslie Philips) lives are turned upside down by a teenager relative of Philip's character Ian. O'Toole plays Maurice, a seventy-something how becomes infatuated with her, but not really to the point of lust. Maurice se...( read more)es her as a work of art, in some cases perfection and in others a piece that needs to be molded some more.
    O'Toole's performance is fantastic and dare I say he should have gotten the Oscar for this one. The film isn't on par of Lawrence of Arabia, but his performance certainly is- a haunting look at an actor that's become a legend on stage but has failed in the other aspects of his life. He is a stranger to himself and "Venus" is a means to introduction.
    In the middle of this veteran cast you have Jodie Whittaker playing Jessie a.k.a. Venus. Whittaker takes the role and runs with it (she was 25 at the time of the film) and her past career has her following in the shadowy footsteps of O'Toole and the other veteran cast members.
    Even though the script for Venus can be a little ho-hum at times, the acting is what really makes this into a superior film that I would recommend seeing. Is it Peter O'Toole's swan song? I certainly hope not.
  • February 22, 2008
    Not a totally satisfying movie, but it has its charms, among them being interesting performances by O'Toole and Whittaker, a lovely soundtrack and a pleasant ending.
  • October 18, 2009
    Refreshing to see such well respected actors using such colourful language!
  • October 6, 2009
    What a tour de force! O'Toole, Phillips, Redgrave and the charming young thing that plays our fallen and redeemed heroine bring virtuosity to this unusual .feast of story telling. May I live to become such a grand old fart.
  • September 30, 2009
    The gentle, poignant story of an unexpected relationship that blossoms between a brash, un-loved teenager and a retired actor more than seventy years her senior. Peter O'Toole plays the ancient actor preparing himself for death, and does it with warmth, love and grace. Favorite s...( read more)cenes: at the beginning when Jessie takes Maurice out to her club scene and they both get drunk, and the end, when Maurice takes a single barefoot step into the cold ocean water.
  • August 16, 2009
    daring,provocative,and with a subject matter that hollywood often fears to tackle,VENUS is a drama unlike any other.and excelled by O'toole wondrous performance,this is a surprisingly brilliant movie that i didn't see coming.the last shot is a gem too(especially if you're a man,h...( read more)ehe)
  • July 22, 2009
    De uma grande sensibilidade.

Critic Reviews


February 3, 2007
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Venus belongs to O'Toole. This is, hands down, my favorite performance of the year, largely because I love the way O'Toole (and the filmmakers) refuse to yield to the all-too-pervasive idea that it's ... full review

January 26, 2007
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles, they say, and Peter O'Toole, 74, proves the point in Venus. full review

December 22, 2006
Pete Hammond, Maxim

O'Toole is simply remarkable as an aging actor still trying to live life to its fullest. He sets the bar way up there for this year's Oscar race. full review

December 21, 2006
Claudia Puig, USA Today

Venus is sharply written with fine supporting performances, but the movie is all about O'Toole, showcasing an actor who at 72 continues to astound with the depth of his talent. full review

December 20, 2006
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

A modest, diverting, touching tale of a young woman who attracts the interest of an aging actor, played with effortless aplomb by the great Peter O'Toole.

December 20, 2006
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Venus is awash in terrific performances. full review

December 18, 2006
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

Venus is worth seeing for the scenes between O'Toole and Vanessa Redgrave as the woman he abandoned. full review

November 23, 2006
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

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

View more Venus reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • ivanxtc
    December 27, 2006
    Venus is first and foremost an actors film. The casting of mercurial talent like Peter O' Toole, Leslie Philips and Richard Griffiths. Even Jodie Whittaker is an actor of budding talent winning a gold medal for her acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2005. The film is instantly watchable for these talents alone but less so for the script from Hanif Kureishi. This is surprising as I greatly admired his last film The Mother. Venus like this film is the story of a much older character having a relationship withs someone younger with sex being present, physically in the Mother and mentally in Venus. Cinema is adept at using age opposition to great affect, Gods and Monsters is but one. Venus is very much in the tradition of what we could term 'mind the age gap cinema' with Harold and Maude up their with the best. O'Toole plays the character of Maurice an aging actor, still in the game but his glory days are long gone. When he is introduced to his actor friends niece played here by Whittaker, her beauty as seen from Maurice's eye is not dented by her behavior traits that would not be out of place on the Catherine Tate Show.

    Like Visconti's Death in Venice, his fast approaching mortality, his past years as something of a ladies man leads him into an a seductive relationship dressed up as an attempt to give the girl a cultural education. And so he does taking her to the National Gallery were upon he shows her Vasquez's painting Venus. The age gap as the relationship develops does not add depth but on to many occasion's is played for laughs. One such clumsy attempt has Maurice leering at her with the help of a waste paper basket with the inevitable consequences. Consequently his late in life liaison with a young women does not give Maurice the uplift and zest for life but instead hastens his decline, this I suppose is the tragedy. What depth their is, O'Toole conveys it and ironically the films stand out scene is his emotional dinner with his f

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Venus Trivia


  • Name the movie where the main character was a man-eating Venus flytrap.  Answer »
  • The name of the painting causing so much contraversy in sirens is Crucified Venus ?  Answer »
  • Black and white screen vamp Marlene Dietrich stays with Cary Grant's character at the end of 30's classic "Blonde Venus"  Answer »
  • In which movie would you find Marlene Dietrich in a gorilla costume?  Answer »

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