The pleasure is all mine, the delightful romantic comedy starring Emma Thompson

The title of the film is to be understood in a literal sense: My pleasure, from 10 November in the hall, it is not the usual cheesy rom-com, on the contrary. We talk a lot, indeed a lot, to be a comedy about female pleasure, on the rediscovery of one’s own sexuality and on eroticism. Which means, paraphrasing for the most modest, that it is the pursuit of happiness in a very poetic and fictional form.

The protagonist Nancy (Emma Thompson) is a high school religion teacher who was widowed two years earlier. After 31 years of marriage and zero – yes, zero – orgasms, the lady thought about booking a meeting with a professional of the trade, Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack). There is tons of prejudice, guilt, and somewhat outdated information on the whole thing. After all, she is a middle-aged lady with two children that she does not attend (she compares them calmly to a couple of “neck weights”), a lot of free time and the distinct feeling of having wasted the best years (and not just because of the inexistence of contentment under the sheets).

He has many (too many?) Questions and one wonders at a certain moment if he doesn’t need a therapy session rather than a gym session in bed with a gigolo. To Leo all this seems a bit strange because never before this meeting has he known a person less indecisive and more curious about the oldest practice in the world. At one point he tells her: “Orgasm isn’t a Faberge egg, people can have it every day”. He makes it easy because, even if under 30, she has a lot of experience and practice than she can dream of in ten lifetimes.

Neither of them gives up, each for their own reasons wants to go all the way and so, in a story that takes place almost entirely in the four walls of a hotel room, the verbal match alternates with experimentation.

A premise remains fundamental: in the film you see little, very little practice and a lot, a lot of theory and someone could reasonably turn up their noses, given the premises. In reality, despite how this comedy is sold by marketing, there is very little itchy, but a lot of forbidden, if you mean on a social level.

Taboos on female pleasure, especially in old age, they are unfortunately still firmly in vogue, so the film’s intention is to unhinge some in an honest, delicate and tender way. It remains within well-defined boundaries, dares up to a certain point, launches the provocation and then retreats between reticence and a touch of rhetoric. But a credit must be given to the project, but above all to Emma Thompson who certainly does not lack courage in getting naked, all the way, gloriously and with great dignity. Chapeau!

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