Review of The Look of Love (2013) by Michael H — 08 Jul 2013

In 1992, burlesque and porn entrepreneur and very, very wealthy man Paul Raymond(Steve Coogan) mourns the death of his daughter Deborah(Imogen Poots). In thinking back, he returns to one of his earliest ideas which was to have a lion taming act in a cage with two topless women.(I didn't say it was a great idea...) When his wife Jean(Anna Friel) has to take over for one of the women who sensibly has second thoughts, she sues a newspaper over a dispute about how little she was wearing at the time. With that bid of notoriety to their name, it is only up, up and beyond for the Raymonds. What makes their marriage work is an arragement that Paul can have sex outside of marriage. However, the same cannot be applied to love which is what happens when Paul meets Amber(Tamsin Egerton), nee Julia, when she auditions for one of his productions.

As racy a movie as it is, "The Look of Love" is really not about sex nor is it concerned with drugs. Rather, it makes a very well-developed case for moderation in all things, as exemplified by the scenes at the sweet shop. For example, swingers do not make the best of parents. But as stimulating as it can be to review a recent history of erotica, two key performances do not hold up under scrutiny and with them go the movie. No matter the different hairstyles, Steve Coogan is still Steve Coogan doing impressions in a restaurant. And even more importantly, while Imogen Poots has done fine work elsewhere, here she does not have the requisite impact to be fully successful as the emotional core of the movie and the only character who tragically fails at reinvention.