By: Andrew Wing

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a 2022 British sex comedy-drama film directed by Sophie Hyde (also directed 52 Tuesdays and Animals) and written by Katy Brand (known for her ITV2 series Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show and for Comedy Lab Slap on Channel 4). The film stars Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility, Stranger than Fiction) and Daryl McCormack (Peaky Blinders, Pixie).

The film follows Nancy Stokes (Thompson), a retired school teacher who is yearning for some adventure, and some sex. And she has a plan, which involves hiring a young sex worker named Leo Grande (McCormack).

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022, and was theatrically released on June 17, 2022, in the United Kingdom by Lionsgate, and digitally in the United States by Searchlight Pictures as a Hulu original film.

THE GOOD

I consider myself to be someone who has pretty good knowledge when it comes to movies that are coming out, but if you had asked me a couple of months ago about this film, I wouldn’t have known anything at all about it. It wasn’t until I saw it on someone’s list of their favorite movies from the first half of 2022 that I became interested in this movie with a very unique title. So I did some digging, saw that it premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was most people’s favorite film right up there with Cha Cha Real Smooth (see my full review here) from Sundance. And then, by the grace of the good Lord himself, I was watching something on Hulu, and I saw it right on their home screen under the “Just Added” catalog, and I was thrilled! You bet your a** I watched it the first thing I could, but was it really as good as some people are saying it is? Keep reading to find out!

I won’t keep you waiting, it was. I don’t know what it is with this year’s films from Sundance, but I’m just eating them right up, because this, like Cha Cha Real Smooth, is definitely one of my favorites of 2022 thus far. It’s a film about a woman who two years after her husband passes away hires a sex worker to try things she has never experienced, and this woman, Nancy Stokes, who is played by Emma Thompson, is the last person in the world you’d expect to be doing this, and that’s what makes the movie fun.

The director of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande was Sophie Hyde, a woman I’d never heard of before. Despite that, Hyde gave us what really feels like an instant classic when it comes to this sex comedy genre of film. Maybe that’s a big statement to make, but all of her directorial choices were flawless here, somehow making every moment feel different despite the majority of the film taking place in a hotel room. And because of that, she was able to make a very enjoyable film that also sends a message that there’s nothing wrong with working in this industry and that we as a public shouldn’t be quick to judge how someone makes a living.

So yeah, Sophie Hyde nailed it as director, but Katy Brand gave us what will without a doubt be one of the best original screenplays of this year. The movie is almost like a play due to Brand’s dialogue-heavy script that takes place in one location, and while usually that might be boring, it was quite the opposite with Brand at the helm. I loved everything about her script. It was funny as there were a handful of jokes, but the best parts of the script were when the two people, Nancy and Leo, got to know each other. A lot of the movie was just a showcase for the writing and the poppy dialogue I’ve mentioned. The characters were always finding something new to talk about and that gave the movie this very fresh feel which I greatly appreciated.

Now onto the entree of the full course meal that was Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, and that were the performances we got from the two leads. First with the Academy-Award-winning actress Emma Thompson because she was amazing. At the start of the film, her character, someone who has never done anything like this before, is pretty prudish and very shy about sex in general, and Thompson made us fully believe everything she was selling. Her performance allowed us as viewers to see that not only did she feel this unadventurous about sex, but her life in general. Her performance was basically perfect here. She really elevates every line of dialogue and she was super funny too. I don’t know, I’ll say it again but I just really bought her character and everything that came with her from her nerves to her insecurities. It’s far-fetched just with this basically being an indie film, but I don’t see why she couldn’t be in the discussion for Best Actress. I mean she’s on camera for over 90% of the movie and trust me when I say we’ve seen actresses win in the past despite having smaller impacts on the film as a whole.

I can’t believe I’m saying this because we are talking about one of the top-tier actresses of the past thirty years in Emma Thompson, but Daryl McCormack gave us an equally as good if not better performance. He and Thompson had really good and unlikely chemistry together. His character, Leo Grande, is at first extremely charming and McCormack had no problem doing that because well, he's charming himself and just an attractive-looking guy. However, as the film goes on we come to learn that his character has something he needs to open up about as well and we got to know him a little bit better. We got so many great scenes from McCormack, and he really shines in the third act of the film as we see him become deeply emotional for a good chunk. Seeing that he had a role in Peaky Blinders makes me want to start that even more so than I did before seeing this, and I really can’t wait to see what McCormack does next because I feel like we got ourselves a star in the making.

There really isn’t much more to address other than the direction, writing, and the two lead performances, but I’ll just say without spoiling that the end of this film was marvelous. Being a sex-comedy drama, I thought they had played it safe for a good chunk, but they went there and I’m glad that they did. All in all, there was just a lot to take away from this movie, and it’s a movie that might make you come out wanting to try something new in life, and that doesn’t mean in the bathroom necessarily.

THE BAD

I had a blast with this film if you couldn’t tell. That said, there were some small areas where I knocked some points off. First, there’s a reason I review films and don’t make them because trying to have your film give this underlying message without being over the top has to be incredibly difficult. That said, I am a critic so I will critique, and I know I said I liked the film’s message overall, there were some exchanges about sex work that just felt like those in charge were explicitly stating what they feel should be the right attitude society should have towards it. And I’m not saying I disagree with the envelope they were pushing and it did come up organically for the most part, but it still was just too on the nose at times and I think they should’ve just trusted the audience to come up with that way of thinking on their own rather than force-feeding it to them.

Continuing with that, I’ll just give you a warning, but if you don’t agree with the movie’s message about sex work and all that jazz before going in, maybe this isn’t for you, but I would still urge you to give it a shot. You never know, you may come away with a new outlook on that industry and everyone involved in it.

THE VERDICT

From director Sophie Hyde and writer Katy Brand, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a British sex comedy-drama film that features some unbelievable performances from the award-winning Emma Thompson and newcomer Daryl McCormack.

It’s a great comedy-drama as we get a perfect amount of both of those things, and it’s just a really enjoyable, charming movie with a beautiful message! I highly recommend checking it out!