Review of Irina Palm (2007) by Tony U — 24 Aug 2008

I guess if one get's a job of any sort at a sex club, one has to come up with a unique fantasy name in order to secure and separate their true identity from their sex job. Especially in London. Especially if the woman is a respectable 50 year old.

61 year old Marianne Faithful, once Mick Jaggar's love in the 60's plays the role perfectly about a woman who accepts a job as a "knobjobber" in order to collect enough cash in order to have her terminally ailing grandson flown to Melbourne to receive life saving treatment not available in England.

The movie is supposed to be a sort of dark comedy, but I found it to be more of a sort of romantic drama with some comedy embedded in it.

The movie was very interesting and used lots of, no pun intended, hand held filming. Marianne Faithful's acting was very charismatic. She played a very likeable and dramatic character.

Faithful's beauty still shines (she was extremely pretty in her 20s) in this movie and the supporting cast.

The movie is excellent to anyone who appreciates voyeur-like scenes. This one places one in the underworld of strip clubs and introduces the viewer to ironic banality of the work and social structure of a sex club.

The footage throughout the film was relatively beautiful and often very dark yet effective.

The one thing I noticed about the movie that prevents me from giving this a perfect mark is the drabness of the energy of this very good movie. The overall mood is for the most part, the same: down cast, sullen, slow and dramatic using the same music repetitively throughout.

The character development of Faithful's character and that of the sex club's owner were done most effectively. The gossipy yenta characters nosily trying to pry into her life weren't very well developed.

The scene where faithful matter of factly admits to her new job was pretty funny, especially the reaction of the yenta's of her new found profession.

All in all, a very highly entertaining movie which might get a sort of Indie following. All in all, I found Faithful's acting nearly Oscar-worthy. She's a little over melancholic in her delivery (reminiscent of Bill Murry in Broken Flower/Lost in Translation) but definitely charming.