Venus: Critic Reviews

Venus has a swank pedigree, but in this case that doesn't mean it's much more than a quaint machine to elicit tears and awards.

A modest, diverting, touching tale of a young woman who attracts the interest of an aging actor, played with effortless aplomb by the great Peter O'Toole.

This is an indulgent movie and needs to be watched in the same spirit.

Venus is sharply written with fine supporting performances, but the movie is all about O'Toole, showcasing an actor who at 72 continues to astound with the depth of his talent.

An edgily charming meditation about the mysteries of attraction.

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

Peter O'Toole, looking frail beyond his 74 years, gives what may be his farewell performance as a leading movie actor in Roger Michell's Venus. It's one for the books -- and maybe the Oscars, too.

Venus is awash in terrific performances.

The film gives Mr. O'Toole all the space he needs to prove that his craft is still fresh and virile.

Venus succeeds because there is no hint of smugness in sight.

Venus is worth seeing for the scenes between O'Toole and Vanessa Redgrave as the woman he abandoned.

With wonderful testaments like Lawrence, Lion and now Venus, O'Toole will always live on.

Peter O'Toole, still a British cinematic lion at 74, performs another movie miracle in the Roger Michell-Hanif Kureishi film Venus.

The great thing about Venus -- apart from its sharp eye for the daily routines and drab details of senior citizenry in a buzzing metropolis -- is that it isn't soppy, or sentimental.

The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles, they say, and Peter O'Toole, 74, proves the point in Venus.

Venus is a fine reminder of the wonders we're presented with every day.

With his intelligent and soulful performance, O'Toole reminds us exactly why he has been nominated for eight Oscars.

If indeed Venus is his swan song, it resounds with a sweetly magnificent melody. Don't miss it.

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

What makes this film the perfect career nightcap for Peter the great is the nimbus of rakish doom he has always cultivated.

O'Toole spent so many years being better than the little material that he was offered that it's heartening to see him sprint toward the finish of his career with such a flourish. If this is his curtain call, it's a glorious one.

Venus adheres to the general parameters of conventional Hollywood with such cheek, intelligence and sheer self-deprecating nastiness that it does more to redeem the fantasy than it does the selfish and vain old geezer who is its beneficiary.

Venus belongs to O'Toole. This is, hands down, my favorite performance of the year, largely because I love the way O'Toole (and the filmmakers) refuse to yield to the all-too-pervasive idea that it's 'icky' for old people to even think about sex.

O'Toole deserves all the praise he has been getting for this part.

This early May, late-December romance springs out of a wonderfully wry foundation.