The Look of Love is a drama film based on the true story (or a Biopic as the "hip" kids are calling it these days) of "Paul Raymond" who is played by Steve Coogan ("Tropic Thunder (2008)" and "24 Hour Party People (2002)").  The film starts in the late-1950s where Paul Raymond introduces nude dancing to his nightclub.  The nude dancers are successful and we then skip to the 1960s where we see Paul Raymond has expanded his nude dancer business and begins the push the edge a little bit and begins to fill his clubs with even more risqué shows.  While the people like it the press see it as nothing but smutty pornographic drivel and would love to see it go away.  After auditioning a new batch of nude dancers for his all-new stage play he ends up falling in love with one of them which leads to him divorcing his wife in what ended up being the most expensive divorce in UK history (at the time).  Now he and his new woman are in the magazine business with a magazine called "Men Only" and is pushing the edge even more.  Sure the press will look down on him but the money is bound to be good... But what will life be like for him when his grown-up daughter wants to work with him?  (Click "Read More" to read the full review).


I know I made the story to be a bit boring sounding but it is executed well and the story really draws you into the film.  I did enjoy the drama in this film as the characters did draw me in emotionally and I'm not all that big on drama films minus a few of them that I am quite fond of like "Steel Magnolias (1989)" and "From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)" (this film doesn't come any way near close as being as good as those two films by the way).  The scenes with Paul Raymond as an old man (in 1992) who was watching a documentary about his life did get way too sappy where it felt very forced and did make me say "Oh man" with my hand smacking my head.  I did find the business talk to be fairly interesting and especially when they talk about the magazine business (might be because of my work at Mondo Cool Monthly).  I also enjoyed Paul Raymonds' relationship with his family, it was both charming and tragic which made for an enjoyable train wreck to witness (I know that's an odd way of explaining but just deal with me here).  I did come close to shedding a few tears as it did get sad towards the end.  Downside is that some scenes in this film did drag on for a little bit which may put some people off which is understandable.


There is a lot of Female nudity in this film of both top-less and full frontal which is oddly very appropriate for this film (well it is about gentlemen clubs and rudie nudie magazines now isn't it) but it is also bound to upset a few people out there.  I'm not going to lie with you as I did enjoy the nudity in this one and to repeat myself I did also enjoy how it was done in a way that (mostly) made sense.  The drug use in this film was very corny and I couldn't help but laugh at how bad those scenes were.


Steve Coogan did a very nice job at playing Paul Raymond as he was very charming and somewhat funny as he wasn't that serious of a businessman.  I did enjoy the portrayal of the people that all the other actors played as they did a very good job at making these people likeable.  Now I don't how these people were in real life as I was just a little baby when the end of this film took place and I don't know which scenes were true or exaggerated to make this film more spicy.


There is around ninety minutes of extras that is included on this disc.  You get a ton of interviews with the cast and crew, deleted scenes, a timeline that marks out what year all the moments that took place in this film plus moments that didn't in a very nice slideshow done to look like trivia cards like the game Trivial Pursuit or like what you would see on the Fantales wrappers (which is an Australian candy), and you also get the theatrical trailer to this film.  I actually wasn't much of a fan of the special features as I found them to be boring although I did enjoy the timeline as made for some nice added trivia.  Overall this was a good film but not a great film.  I say go out and see it but this film won't appeal to everybody.  Worth at least one watch.

Title: The Look of Love
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Steve Coogan, Anna Friel, Imogen Poots, Tamsin Egerton
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 101 minutes
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (www.madman.com.au)
Rating: MA15+ (Strong sexualised nudity, sex scenes, drug use)
Price: $34.95
Recommended: Yes