There's nothing more heartwarming than a teenage girl and her sugar-granddaddy.

Peter O’Toole proves he’s still got it in him in Venus, a movie that pushes the envelope of May-December romance. He plays Maurice, an aging British actor of some renown whose glamorous movie star past has given way to the indignities of old age. He still works, taking the occasional bit part as a dying grandfather, but lives in a walk-up flat, has trouble with his prostate and spends his days with his cronies Ian (Leslie Phillips) and Donald (Richard Griffiths), measuring column inches in the newspaper obituaries of his contemporaries.

Enter Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), Ian’s grand-niece. She’s come to London to be her uncle’s live-in help, but from her first sullen appearance it’s clear that that won’t go well. Maurice offers to take the girl off Ian’s hands.

Thus begins a relationship that’s, well, it’s not as icky as it could have been. Yes, Maurice is a letch and O’Toole, in a brilliantly cagy performance, never lets us forget that. His motive is clearly to spend time in the company of an attractive young woman, and possibly to enjoy more than conversation. He offers her a taste of glamour and sophistication: an evening at the theater, or a limo ride to his latest movie gig. In exchange he might get a glimpse of leg or permission to kiss her shoulder. Jessie, though young and naïve, isn’t entirely an innocent victim. She knows what’s going on and she sets and sticks to clear boundaries, though there’s still an air of vulnerability around her that makes the relationship problematic.

"Here's to Shakespeare! Oh, and boobies."

So is Maurice just a dirty old man? Is Jessie a victim or is she exploiting Maurice in return? All of the above, I suppose. In scenes with his ex-wife (beautifully played by Vanessa Redgrave) we learn that Maurice has always been a skirt-chasing rogue. Why should he be any different now that he’s in his seventies? Director Roger Michell and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi acknowledge that senior citizens are still sexual beings and a man who has spent his adulthood with one young beauty after another isn’t going to stop wanting that just because his prostate won’t cooperate.

I think that if the relationship had either been consummated (blessedly, not an option) or had stopped sooner it may have proved damaging for Jessie. But as the film progresses, it blossoms into a more genuine friendship that allows her to grow. Venus, with its slow pacing and some plot points that don’t entirely ring true, isn’t a perfect film, but it’s a thoughtful one that provides a witty, unsentimental look at the elderly, a segment of the population rarely the focus of a feature film. 

Gorilla Pants rating: 3 out of 4 bananas