This is not a comedy. It has Steve Coogan in it, yes, it also has Chris Addison (of the The Thick of It fame) and it seems to be something that could grind a few laughs out, hell even Stephen Fry turns up in a judge wig in a completely non ironic manner. It's about Paul Raymond a chap who seems to have some unwavering belief that people will pay good money to see woman in various states of undress, it follows him as he proceeds to excel through life with various ventures which all involve some degree of female nudity. It's also a true story, just to add a stomach curdling awkwardness to the events playing out, you literally can't believe the events going on but you have to remind yourself it all happened in reality too.
My first complaint? Uhmmm for a film, which I aptly described as 60% boob as I left the cinema, where the hell is the male nudity? Fine, I know Paul Raymond specialises in female nudity but the film could even the books a little bit. Perhaps my version of reality demanding equality for both sexes is skewed, no one wants to see naked men, well, we get to see naked Steve Coogan, but is he full frontal? And most importantly did I want to see naked Steve Coogan? Not so much... Is this an ongoing issue for me? Why is that I've only seen Michael Fassbender and Mark Walhberg's genitals but it seems that female actresses are somewhat expected to get naked all the fricking time? I mean, come on, even the bloody Full Monty chickened out! Blah, feminist rant over, maybe I just don't watch films with full frontal male nudity enough, porn aside, I don't think there are that many...
The Look of Love spends so much time showing us naked women, in a way you become desensitised to the female form, as the film wears on it actually becomes boring, the novelty wears off quite quickly. Of course, I'm not naive enough to ignore that this is a blatant expression of Raymond's life, he can kid himself into believing that excessive drug use, partying and naked women may seem like a whole lot of fun but it wears on us all, including his two wives and even his daughter as they all part from him in one way or another. This life isn't sustainable, it can't last forever and that's what the film is desperately trying to plug into our skulls, endless fun and debauchery always ends badly, because it has no anchor to reality; there are consequences to our actions, there are risks that such a lifestyle inflicts. Paul Raymond lives his life ignoring the dangers and the consequences and plunges forward into ever more shocking and jaw dropping pursuits, because shock and awe sells, as do naked women and sex and thus he becomes a pornographer and keeps on going, because... Well he's happy with the way things are, as long as he is having fun, even though everything else around him fades away.
I wrote a long essay about happiness the other day, it wasn't a well structured thing, it was just a rambling mess, but my core reasoning was that happiness is usually the strongest motivation in life; if something produces happiness you do it, once it runs out, you stop. Happiness is such a blunt emotion, it claps you across the face with a smile, a feeling of elation, it's like a drug. We're always looking for happiness, it dictates how we live our lives, because that's all we are looking for, and happiness usually comes from familiarity and comfort. If we know what makes us happy we keep going back to that font for constant refills, and sometimes it's hard to acknowledge when that which once made us happy doesn't have that same effect any more. Paul Raymond watches his life crash around him but he doesn't change his ways because he believes that endless partying, women and drugs make him happy and he continues with this because what else is there? It's a shallow lifestyle but the most shallow of people are the happiest.
Does this sound funny? There is some dark humour plumbed from drug use, and ex-wives and the hilarity of people discussing the insanity around them in such withered ways? There are some pithy one liners thrown in and a couple of ad-libs which are worth a chuckle but this is just a long and frankly sad film. We are immediately given evidence at the start of the film that things don't work out for Raymond's daughter Debbie, and as the film goes to great lengths to develop their relationship the end doesn't really shock or surprise anyone, it's almost a movie cliché to present the denouement at the start of the film and it doesn't nothing to make this film any better; as it is a biopic for those interested they would know the bare bones of the story to start, but for the casual viewer wouldn't it have more impact to surprise them instead of prepare them for this obvious inevitability? Well that's my opinion on that.
It's so hard to look at the broken man at the end of the film because he's such an intensely loathsome person; but then he has nothing particularly redeeming or interesting about him. He tells a few jokes and the women fall over themselves for his money and fame but he's not actually very interesting, I would go as far as to say that Paul Raymond, as a man is pretty boring, I thought there had to be some angle his second wife was playing because, let's be completely honest, why would someone so dazzling fall for him? You know, apart from the obvious, fame, money, power... But then she failed to actually be anything more than a jolly lover and a bit rude and able to further his magazine; it's a shame because her motivations and anything that might have made her a character were stripped away and all we had was a pretty face. In fact the most interesting character was his poor daughter and that was because it I found it intriguing to watch the lifestyle she had been born into inevitably destroy her, and she's such a delicate sweet girl to start with underneath all the bluster.
So from what I've gathered after ranting for this long, is that I didn't actually think much of this film. In fact it wasn't that great, apart from the ending which I found quite pleasantly sad (I like sad films...) it just wasn't something I enjoyed. Plus any day where I get bored of staring at bare breasts is certainly an odd one.
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