Venus

Venus (2006) is a British tragicomedy by Roger Michell that you can watch online on iFILM. Peter O'Toole stars as Maurice, an aging London actor whose roles have shrunk to dying old men in TV dramas. The performance earned O'Toole his eighth Academy Award nomination.

Maurice and his old friend Ian share a quiet routine of café breakfasts, sharp jokes and slow walks. That rhythm breaks when Ian's grandniece Jessie arrives from the north to help out. She is rude, provincial and bored by everything Maurice holds dear — and he finds himself drawn to her anyway. Their odd, prickly closeness becomes the old man's last flush of desire and a reason to look back over a long life.

Michell, who made Notting Hill, directed from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. Vanessa Redgrave and Leslie Phillips round out the cast, and a young Jodie Whittaker plays Jessie in her screen debut. What lingers is the film's refusal to turn old age into either farce or pity — it keeps the humor, the ache and the dignity intact. Stream Venus (2006) online on iFILM.