The subject of The Look of Love, Paul
Raymond (Steve Coogan), became the richest man in Britain because he recognised the
demand for entertainment featuring naked women. Constantly pushing at the
boundaries of taste with his striptease stage shows and magazine Men Only, he
built an empire of sleaze with a diminishing veneer of respectability, all the
while deflecting accusations of degrading women with a smile and a joke.
Steve Coogan successfully pulls off the
trick of making Raymond occasionally likeable but more often than not, a cold
and callous businessman. That anyone would want to sit through this man’s story
could be down to a couple of reasons. Firstly Raymond’s relationship with his
wayward and spiraling into tragedy daughter and secondly the gratuitous flesh
liberally put on display.
Like the recent Spring Breakers, The Look
of Love has more female nudity than your average men’s magazine. Unsurprisingly
given the nature of Raymond’s business, breasts are jiggling everywhere. Full
frontal nudity is on stage, in beds and splashed across the pages of Raymond’s
increasingly daring magazines. It’s all part of the allure of the
entrepreneur’s lifestyle that he is constantly surrounded by half or completely
naked women, many of which end up in his luxurious penthouse bed under the
stars, often more than one at a time.
But the appeal of the casual, coked up and
boozy swinging sixties and seventies sex is always tempered by the flash
forwards to Raymond’s later life as he sits in front of the television,
watching his daughter give a revealing television interview before tragedy
struck.
The Look of Love is above all a cautionary
tale, much more so than the similarly debauched and loaded with excess Spring
Breakers. Raymond is a tragic figure, though it is hard to fully sympathise
with him. A man who clearly had or could have had anything he wanted, spoiled
his daughter, treated his wives and lovers like disposable goods and ended up
sad and alone, his wealth and empire meaning little after the loss of his
daughter. The women in his life, most notably daughter Debbie (Imogen Poots)
and wife Jean (Anna Friel) are excellent in roles that could have easily been
one note and unsympathetic.
The names and faces of British comedy pop
up thick and fast, some in blink and you’ll miss them cameos, others for longer
stretches. Chris Addison is excellent as coked up associate and bad influence
on Raymond’s daughter Tony Power. David Walliams, Matt Lucas, Simon Bird and
Stephen Fry are completely underused in small and often utterly trivial roles
but add to the star power of this Brit glitz and grime caper.
The seedy underground clubs, lavish shows
and all night party living all clearly take their toll on Raymond but
Winterbottom captures the decades of decadence with an excellent eye for
production design. The sets, locations, costumes, hair and make-up all make for
a wonderful whirling kaleidoscope of colour and kitsch. At some points the
montages feel like seedy Austin Powers outtakes with their funky editing, music
and scantily clad women in various states of seductive posing.
The Look of Love is fascinating in its
study of a man with plenty of desire for the opposite sex but little regard for
their emotional well being. Paul Raymond is an enigma; keen to exploit the flesh
of young women but also protective of his own daughter. He is both caring and
doting and father and also completely and utterly useless at protecting Debbie
from the wrongs of the world in which he introduces and launches her. Raymond
is a man with little respect for women, a complete disinterest in his own son
and who literally spoiled his daughter to her demise but Coogan makes him
eminently watchable and bordering on sympathetic as he sits alone in his old
age.
After Winterbottom and Coogan’s previous
collaborations on 24 Hour Party People, A Cock and Bull Story and The Trip, The
Look of Love appears both tremendously ambitious and extremely conventional. It
might not push the boundaries quite as much as 9 Songs in terms of on screen
sex but it does have plenty for pervs in the way of the female form.
The Look of Love is the rise and fall of an
exploitative entrepreneur. Raymond may not be overly likeable but his
relationship with his daughter can be touching and provides evidence of a
misguided heart beneath the brash exterior perfectly played by Coogan.
Here's the trailer:
