Somehow in line with "Calendar Girls" and "Mrs Henderson Presents" as it deals with the sex life of elderly ladies, "Irina Palm" is the story of the slightly-more-than-middle-aged Maggie who has to raise a large sum of money in order to save her grandchild from dying, takes a job as a w*nker in a sex club (minimal physical touch, no nude scenes, all done in the best taste) (... imaginable under the circumstances, that is) - and finds that she has a rare talent for just that sort of work. I liked it. The story is given every conceivable, foreseeable twist and turn - a romance with the sex bar proprietor who just had to sample her talent on the sly; her friends who are dying to be let in on the particulars, but still are too prudish not to turn their backs on her; her son finding out and flying into a rage, and the reconciliation with her hostile daughter-in-law when she learns about Maggie's sacrifice - all predictable, but still: I liked it. Perhaps because everybody in the film puts out great performance. Miki Manoljovic is very good as the sex bar owner who falls in love with his unlikely ace employee, Kevin Bishop is frighteningly good as the loving, mild-mannered son who cannot really see his way through to understand his mother (which son could, given her line of work?), and Marianne Faithful, that rarely seen blast from the past (my past, at least) is certainly a far cry from her Ophelia in 1969 (Yes, I do know that she's been doing bits and bobs in between, but somehow I've missed them). Marianne Faithful's slow, slightly hazy style is recognizable still, and I'd say she carries this film through in a very touching way - no pun intended.
Review of Irina Palm
