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Emma Thompson: "Leo Grande"

 When Glenn Close was campaigning for "The Wife," she would tell a story about her mother, on her deathbed: Stricken, Close, Sr., looked around and said, "Wait. In my life....I never *did* anything...."


This could have inspired the makers of "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande," which has Emma Thompson fighting against a ticking clock. Thompson plays Susan Robinson--yes, the writer jokes about "Mrs. Robinson"--a person in her sixties who would very much like to have one orgasm before her seventieth birthday. This story is deeply, deeply sad, and Thompson is well aware that she isn't just making a sex comedy.

In the "Oscar reel" moment (although this film isn't eligible for Oscars), Susan Robinson recalls having been twenty; she was a kid on a family vacation, and a waiter began to seduce her late at night. But a noisy car disrupted the scene. Susan has thought about this night, on a daily basis, for forty years. As Emma Thompson recites her lines, she begins sobbing uncontrollably; this is "lightning in a bottle."

I don't really care about the rest of the movie; I don't have much interest in the poor guy who has to try to hold his own on-screen with Ms. Thompson for two hours. I'm just happy that Thompson has found a complicated new character; I'm amazed that this particular career now includes "Leo Grande," on top of "Wit," on top of "Angels in America," on top of "Howards End" and "Sense and Sensibility" and "Late Night" and "An Education" and "Henry V" and "Ellen" and "Sweeney Todd" and "Meyerowitz Stories" and "Remains of the Day" and "Harry Potter" and "Primary Colors."

I look forward to Thompson's 2020s, and 2030s, and I hope she will keep acting and writing as long as she can.
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