The Look of Love, 2013
Directed by Michael Winterbottom.
Starring Steve Coogan, Imogen Potts, Anna Friel, Tamsin Egerton, Chris Addison and James Lance.
SYNOPSIS:
The life of Paul Raymond, the controversial entrepreneur who became Britain’s richest man.
With Michael Winterbottom at the helm and Steve Coogan in the leading role, The Look of Love was always going to be compared to 24 Hour Party People. They both follow influential men in their industries, they both contain sex and drugs and they both share the same issues: they’re too long, they’re too padded and, at times, they’re both dull.
The main problem with The Look of Love is that not all of Paul Raymond’s life was interesting so when you show those parts the film just comes to a grinding halt. The amount of padding is astounding. We know that Paul Raymond was considered to a ‘porn king’ (he was more of a property king), but we don’t need to see scene after scene after scene of him having minaj et trois and shoving cocaine up his nose.
However, when the film is good, it’s very good. I was really drawn into the opening half hour of the movie as we see Paul build up his empire with his controversial tactics and ideas which went from clubs to shows to magazines. I even liked seeing the evolution of the magazine and how it moved on with the times. The “business meetings” with Tony (played by 8 of 10 Cats regular Chris Addison) are really interesting and Winterbottom does a great job of playing these scenes out. But for all the good scenes the film has, it has a dozen other boring ones. It’s also really funny and did get quite a few chuckles out of me.
One of the other issues with the film is Steve Coogan himself. Don’t get me wrong, I love Steve Coogan and I would like to argue that he can do no wrong, but the problem with his performance is that he’s not emulating Paul Raymond – he’s doing Alan Partridge saying Paul Raymond lines. A good biopic leading actor should encapsulate the person they are playing (Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock) but here all I could see is North Norfolk Digital’s top mid-morning DJ.
The Look of Love, again like 24 Hour Party People, has a lot of British comedic talent show up for scenes here and there to give a line or two of dialogue such as Matt Lucas, Dara O’Briain, David Walliams, Stephen Fry and Simon Bird wearing the most unconvincing wig you’ll see on screen. The problem with this is that you get more of a laugh from seeing these people in a movie rather than engaging with what they are saying. It’s not a problem having these actors in if they are going to serve the plot, but getting Matt Lucas to play Divine for all of 10 seconds is a waste of time.
What annoys me about The Look of Love the most is that it isn’t trying to say anything. Winterbottom et al could have told the story of how Paul Raymond fought the system to get his “work” seen or his dealings with corrupt coppers. There is a lot of interesting history from the man who was at one time the richest man in the country, but they gloss over so much just to show another drugs and sex scene. It often feels like The Look of Love is trying to shock its audience with copious amounts of nudity on show but after a while you just become desensitised to it and the ‘thrill’ is more or less lost.
When The Look of Love is good, it hits the nail on the head. But when it’s bad, it’s pretty bloody boring. The supporting cast (Imogen Potts, Anna Friel and Tamsin Egerton in particular) are great but the Partridge performance from Coogan is incredibly off putting which drags the film down. With such an interesting man to take a story from, The Look of Love feels like a missed opportunity.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published April 26, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
