The Unofficial Peter O'Toole Pages!

(via Reuters)By Michael RechtshaffenTORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - At 74, Peter O'Toole could well earn an eighth Oscar nomination, this time for his superbly rendered portrayal of a working English actor whose autumn years yield a surprise third act.While the vehicle that likely will take him there -- Roger Michell's "Venus," in which O'Toole finds himself falling hard for his best friend's cheeky grand-niece -- hits a few bumpy patches after a very promising start, it hands the accomplished actor one of his best roles in years and he masterfully runs with it.This performance alone should ensure the Miramax release brings in the audience that responded to the Weinstein Co.'s "Mrs. Henderson Presents," which bowed last year at Toronto.Something of a flipside to "The Mother," the previous collaboration between Michell and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi about an older widow who has an affair with her daughter's lover, this early May, late-December romance springs out of a wonderfully wry foundation.O'Toole is Maurice Russell, an actor whose phone continues to ring, but these days the jobs being offered tend to be playing dying hospital patients.Whiling away his growing free time in a cafe along with his longtime actor friend, the certified drama queen Ian (Leslie Phillips), the ailing Maurice is content to play things out to the final curtain.Enter Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), the typical teenager whom Ian's niece has shipped off to her uncle's home.Although Ian had envisioned someone who would draw warm baths and cook splendid dinners for him, the rather coarse Jessie proves clueless.But she also happens to stir something long forgotten in Maurice's heart (not to mention other places), and the old man risks being played the fool in the name of infatuation.Things inevitably turn darker, and the film loses its way somewhat while transitioning from all the early beautifully barbed banter to that later heavy dose of pathos.Although Michell's steady direction and Kureishi's lyrical writing might have trouble maintaining the right tragicomic balance, it's certainly not a problem for O'Toole, whose expertly modulated performance is a thing to behold.While casually commanding, it also is generous enough to allow a good deal of light to shine on the fine work of his fellow cast members Phillips and spirited newcomer Whittaker, as well as in tender scenes with Vanessa Redgrave who plays his long-estranged but still palsy wife.Production values are comfortably inviting thanks to Haris Zambarloukos' warm cinematography and John Paul Kelly's lived-in production design. Neatly completing the mood is the selection of breezy soul-pop tunes furnished by acclaimed British songstress Corinne Bailey Rae.Reuters/Hollywood Reporter