Review: The Look of Love

The Look of Love is a tragicomic biopic starring Steve Coogan as Paul Raymond: Soho-based club owner, publisher, property magnate and, perhaps most notably, pornographer. It charts most of his successful career and less successful family life, although really focuses on the relationship with his daughter and his lifestyle's effects on those who surround him.

This is a very atmospheric, stylish film: the characters swan around Soho in collars almost as big as their flares, drinking whisky in dark bars with horrific '70s wallpaper, all to the funktastic musical accompaniments of T-Rex and Donovan. This mix helps to swoop the viewer into the rambunctious yet precarious world of Paul Raymond. It is also often funny. A Partridgeon delivery from Coogan has the audience laughing frequently. There were plenty of gags from the other actors- a positive element of British comedic films is that they often feature a lot of home-grown acting talent. David Walliams plays a priest, Simon Bird (nerd from The Inbetweeners) wears a ridiculous moustache, and Chris Addison jumps around as a beardy coke fiend, like a high daddy long legs. While on the subject of acting, it should be said that Imogen Poots makes a good job of playing Raymond's daughter. Principally, though, this is a Coogan vehicle

There is a slight Alan Partridge veneer to the portrayal, with pernickety corrections emanating from a half-curled mouth ('it's my property so I know that the leasing contract specifically forbade sub-letting'). But I think that that is really Coogan himself coming through, because the hapless Alan is part-Coogan. And, like Partridge, he is drawing on himself. This creates real human feeling, vulnerability and error. For me, Coogan wasn’t getting cheap laughs out of a shallow adaptation of a life, he was imbuing the story with psychological depth in his own imitable way. This is what is so good about him being directed by Michael Winterbottom, the pairing obviously working well in this fashion. My description sounds similar to a review of The Trip, or elements of 24 Hour Party People, another biopic, or Cock and Bull Story. For more about the Winterbottom-Coogan partnership, check The Telegraph’s recent article on the subject.

The main criticism that seems to be thrown at The Look of Love is that it's shallow, a flippant forgiving of a controversial and far from perfect man. Some may find this to be the case, but in my opinion the profundity of the film creeps up. We thinks that we're watching a light comedy, but all of a sudden the audience find themselves whirring in a tundra of emotion and tragedy. All seems funny and relatively good-natured, but the very lifestyle that is so fun to watch takes hold and spirals out of control. A good reflection, I would imagine, of the reality. As an illustration of my point, take cocaine. I don't mean that as an instruction, I mean let's look at its place in the film. There's plenty of it, enough to fill the dreams of Pablo Escobar. Initially, it's all harmless fun and games- child's play, I hear you think. But at some point, it dawns on us that it is getting a bit much. People are getting 'strung out' (a phrase which actors playing coke-snorters in cinema are contractually obliged to use). And it does go too far. Alan Partridge meets Scarface.

Some think that the controversial topic of Raymond’s industry (‘gentlemen’s’ magazines and ‘gentlemen’s’ clubs) should have been more directly challenged. But by making it non-judgemental, we see the reality without cliché. We see the events and people as they were, and the doubtless terrible effects of Raymond's adult exuberance.

Overall The Look of Love is a powerful character study, an interesting watch, and an entertaining hour and a half

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