Avis Metacritic

Told with wit, genuine poignancy and all kinds of humor, Venus charts the unlikely relationship between a man in his 70s and a young woman more than half a century his junior.

A heartbreaking comedy that is simultaneously funny and sad, raunchy and sweet, funky and elegiac. These fresh, unexpected juxtapositions are a specialty of the writer Hanif Kureishi ("My Beautiful Laundrette"), a sworn enemy of cliché.

The screenplay is by Hanif Kureishi, who wrote "The Mother" for Michell and also scripted the classic "My Beautiful Laundrette." He has a feeling for outsiders.

Maurice, the protagonist of Venus, is a suit lovingly tailored to O'Toole's ravaged but commanding frame.

Awash in terrific performances.

Since the movie is about desire -- not so much for sex as for the vitality and surprise that sex can provide -- it is also about power. Few writers can match Mr. Kureishi's knowing wit on this subject, or his skill at dissecting the shifting dynamics of longing and domination.

O'Toole gives a staggering performance -- fearless, defiantly untamed and in its own way a work of art.

This is a brave movie because it addresses a subject Hollywood feels uncomfortable about.

Genuinely funny, randy and moving by turns, breezily enjoyable throughout.

Venus is worth seeing for the scenes between O’Toole and Vanessa Redgrave as the woman he abandoned--the mother of his children.