Irina Palm (2007) User Reviews

Gritty, original and realistic

[slake09 · 8/10 · 19 November 2007]

Marianne Faithful stars as a grandmother desperate to provide a rare and expensive medical treatment for her cancer-stricken grandson, in any way possible. She tries every other avenue before settling, reluctantly, on sex work.

The synopsis just doesn't do justice to the movie; my expectations were low, but the film really delivers. From the reactions of her friends and family to the pride she begins to take in her job, this movie has a wealth of subtle and not-so-subtle points to make. The one thing I noted was that there is no way, in the context of the film, to condemn her character for what she is doing. She simply has to reach her goal, and nothing is going to stop her. That kind of dedication is rare and touching.

The best scenes were the grandmother's relations with the club owner and other workers. She holds her own and maintains her dignity despite the circumstances she finds herself in. There aren't any crude jokes, despite the material, but there are rare moments of humor.

Watch this if you get the chance, you won't be disappointed.

Irina Palm

[rajdoctor · 7/10 · 30 June 2007]

When I saw the trailers it looked like a European film and settings, but luckily this movie was in English directed by a German born Belgium director Sam Garbarski.

The story is in a small village near London about a widowed grand-mother Maggie (Marianne Faithful), whose grand son has to undergo treatment in Australia. She has a son Tom (Kevin Bishop) and daughter in law Sarah (Siobhan Hewlett) who can not earn that much to afford the trip to Australia. Maggie loves the grandson a lot but does not have any skills to do work – she has never worked in her entire life. After being rejected at many places, in search of work she lands up in the Soho area (red light district of London) in Mikky's (Miki Manojlovic) sex club / restaurant. Very shy and hesitant – she agrees to the work of masturbating men for a decent sum of Pounds 900 per week. Within no time she becomes the famous Irina Palm (pseudo name) for her skills. Maggie finds a new confidence and self-independence through this new role – which she never thought would become her respected profession. She borrows money from Miki and gives to her son, who becomes suspicious and when he follows her and knows about her new profession and is deeply hurt. He wants her to take the money back and leave the dirty profession.

The movie is about the journey through the mind of Maggie. Her hesitations, her doubts, her fears, her joy, her confidence, her love, and her grandiose – everything is perfect.

Marianne Faithful – who started her career as a singer, and later got involved in film acting – looks beautiful (just google her name and see how beautiful she was in her young days) and has acted honorably in portraying the character of Maggie to its core. She speaks more in her silences, stares and glances than with words. She was the perfect casting by the Director Sam. A special mention of veteran actor Miki Manojlovic – who has played the dark character of Mikky with so much punch and humanness that it is remarkable and not easy to forget. Both Marianne and Miki sparkles the screen with their historic.

A very well directed film by Sam – this is just his fifth directional project. He has also co-written the script with Philip Blasband. Cinematography by Christophe Beacarne is wonderful in capturing the life of a small British village to the dark and dingy streets and hotels of Soho –especially the beginning shot of the village through bird's view and hand held shots of dark back alleys of Soho.

At one point in the movie when Maggie is forced by her son to leave the work, I was longing for Marianne to go back to her profession – because that had brought her self- dignity and self-esteem. But I will not say the ending and spoil of interest.

A very good – sensitive movie! (Stars 7.5 out of 10)

The Magic Touch of Irina Palm

[kaaber-2 · 8/10 · 1 October 2007]

Somehow in line with "Calendar Girls" and "Mrs Henderson Presents" as it deals with the sex life of elderly ladies, "Irina Palm" is the story of the slightly-more-than-middle-aged Maggie who has to raise a large sum of money in order to save her grandchild from dying, takes a job as a w*nker in a sex club (minimal physical touch, no nude scenes, all done in the best taste) (... imaginable under the circumstances, that is) - and finds that she has a rare talent for just that sort of work. I liked it. The story is given every conceivable, foreseeable twist and turn - a romance with the sex bar proprietor who just had to sample her talent on the sly; her friends who are dying to be let in on the particulars, but still are too prudish not to turn their backs on her; her son finding out and flying into a rage, and the reconciliation with her hostile daughter-in-law when she learns about Maggie's sacrifice - all predictable, but still: I liked it. Perhaps because everybody in the film puts out great performance. Miki Manoljovic is very good as the sex bar owner who falls in love with his unlikely ace employee, Kevin Bishop is frighteningly good as the loving, mild-mannered son who cannot really see his way through to understand his mother (which son could, given her line of work?), and Marianne Faithful, that rarely seen blast from the past (my past, at least) is certainly a far cry from her Ophelia in 1969 (Yes, I do know that she's been doing bits and bobs in between, but somehow I've missed them). Marianne Faithful's slow, slightly hazy style is recognizable still, and I'd say she carries this film through in a very touching way - no pun intended.

original and touching tale

[antoniotierno · 22 February 2008]

Marianne Faithful has an emotional magnet, a stillness/quietness that makes her performance, as well as the film totally, centered on this intriguing and unique character; Miki Manojlovic too, as the nightclub owner, provides a wonderful and a smooth performance; Dorka Gryllus is also remarkable in her small but important role as Maggie's colleague. The story's concept is not completely brand new (desperate character doing desperate things to make money for life saving) but it has been refreshed and it finally proved involving and engaging. Of course it's a very improbable story, but I found very convincing the portrayal of a woman uncomfortable in her own skin and overall uncomfortable with other peoples. There are some scenes blending humor and surprise, rendered in a very poignant way and the tone is always appropriate.

Best handjob movie of the year

[fertilecelluloid · 6/10 · 3 April 2008]

Even though it hasn't been a great year for handjob movies, this is still the best one going so far. It's even named after the handjob queen herself, Irina Palm. Marianne Faithful is Maggie, a grandmother of a sick little boy who needs a life-saving operation in Australia. With the boy's parents unable to come up with the funds for a plane ticket and accommodation, Maggie reluctantly takes a job in a sex club as an anonymous masturbator of men. She turns out to be so popular and such a natural that the other girl doing the same job gets fired. The sex club boss, who develops a soft spot for Maggie, starts marketing Maggie as 'Irina Palm', and laughs all the way to the bank. For a while, anyway. Complication do arise when Maggie's bombastic son learns that his mum is turning tricks with her hand. There are health consequences to the work, too, such as contracting "penis elbow", and being forced to use the left hand when the working hand is forced into a sling. "Irina Palm", which is a pretty dour, depressing drama, is perked up occasionally by some black humor and sharp characterization. It's a little too slow at times, and Faithful is not the most exciting actress, but it's an eye-opening "true story" that can't be accused of being limp.

Classy Brit Flick

[roblynmouth · 10/10 · 26 December 2007]

Irina Palm is one of those quirky off-beat Brit flicks that you come across every now and again. Based around the life of a middle aged Maggie, widowed, one son and a grandchild dying of a rare illness. Maggie needs a lot of money to pay for the treatment the boy needs, which can only be found in Australia. However, as widow whose main employment seems to have been as a lady who lunches, her work skills are rather non-existent. Also having sold of the family silver and home some time previously there is very little in the kitty to pay for the treatment he needs. However, she eventually finds salvation in the sex trade as an unlikely sex worker however a rather talented one at that. Finding her niche in hand jobs (to be polite) she sets about becoming the best in London and the target of headhunters (or hand-hunters in this case) What I really enjoyed is the sheer brilliant humanity that Ms Faithful brought to the screen as she realizes that there are real people who work the industry, real that is with families, and homes of their own Special mention must go to Miki Manojlovic and Jenny Agutter for two of the best scenes in the film. All in all a well worth the trip out but as its now playing at Art house cinemas might be a little bit tricky to find.

Not without merit, but slow

[neil-476 · 7/10 · 15 July 2012]

Marianne Faithful plays middle-aged widow Maggie, who takes a job masturbating men anonymously through a hole in the wall in order to raise money to pay for a life-saving operation for her grandson. This has consequences, both good (the money, the sense of self-worth and empowerment Maggie gains, the possibility of a relationship with the proprietor of the sex shop), and bad (her son finding out, secrecy, another worker losing her job because Maggie is better at it).

Let me say that Marianne Faithful, in a subtle and understated performance, is very good indeed. The story is a good one and carries both incident and emotion.

My sole reservation - and it is a big one - is that the film is quite slow, particularly at the start. Maggie's "training" sequence, for instance, takes forever and continues way beyond the stage where it has made its point, and it is not the only sequence to be excessively leisurely.

Every now and then

[paulbakalite · 9/10 · 17 November 2007]

Every now and then a remarkable small film is made. The recent "Venus" starring Peter O'Toole is one. Irina Palm is also one.

This is a story of a middle-aged woman (Maggie, played by Marianne Faithful) worn down by sadness. She must get hold of a substantial amount of money. Forced by necessity and desperation Maggie does something that is at first utterly alien to her, but may yet become an awakening and salvation, a route to an identity she does not know she has and to new love.

Marianne Faithful's central performance is hugely affecting in its undecorated stillness and simplicity. This film is a cut above so many bigger releases. If you like a small story well-told it is for you.

Living Both Outside The Box and In A Cubicle: Grandma A Sex Worker!

[museumofdave · 7/10 · 3 March 2013]

It's easy to see why many male critics might dislike this odd and quirky slice of seedy realism--mixed with an unlikely romance--simply because most of the men in the film are portrayed as emotional basket cases, while the lead, compellingly played by Marianne Faithful, evolves into a full-fledged character who sacrifices her own well-being for that of her grandchild, and ignores the social rules by which everyone is supposed to play. This will probably be the only semi-mainstream film ever released that deals with an unemployed grandmother who decides to work giving pleasure with her palms (hence the coy name) in a Soho sex club--and doing so with a combination of wit, odd charm, and a good deal of family drama--and there's even a little romance kindled for the old gal. If you set aside the usual middle-class horrors concerning those who choose to live outside the box, this film can be a good deal of fun--strange, but point well-taken!

A Great Surprise

[martinvives · 9/10 · 13 December 2007]

I watched this movie in the preview in my university. I must admit that when my friend told me what it was about I thought it would be one of those dull good-intentioned but poorly made movie. I was wrong.

This movie is powerful and transmits a lot. Doesn't pretend to feel pity, and even though the beginning might be even considered dramatic, it made me laugh out loud several times.

It's the first review I write, but I definitely thought I should drop a line to defend this beautiful story that talks about what can a person do for a loved one, about re-discovering yourself, about avoiding stupid dogmas... And at the end it leaves you with a broad smile and a sense of tenderness that not so commonly a movie inflicts you.

If you like beautiful stories, this is your movie.

About Love

[Galina_movie_fan · 7/10 · 19 February 2017]

Irina Palm is not the first or last movie about a middle-aged woman who would face the situation that requires to completely turn her life around and to make the choices and sacrifices she would never even imagine. What makes Irina Palm special is Marianne Faithful in the titular role.

The pop-culture legend and the muse of the legendary rock-musicians, the singer, the actor, the rare beauty, the symbol of swinging 60s, the center of media frenzy in her young days, the recovering drug addict, the 60+ years old cancer survivor and the grandmother of two, gives a brilliant Oscar worthy performance as Maggie/Irina, a 50 years old widow who desperately needs to find a job to help to pay for her beloved grandson medical bills. She throws herself into the movie, brings genuine emotions and humor to the rather grim and perverse story, and she owns the movie. Without her, it could have been just another small mildly interesting independent film with a quirky twist but she elevates it to the higher level. She is a fine actress and her performance as a loving grandma/reluctant sex worker with a magic touch is affecting, moving, funny, dignified, and memorable. Marianne Faithful and Yugoslavian actor Miki Manojlovic as Maggie/Irina's boss have the real chemistry together and make us believe that the mutual interest, understanding and attraction could exists in some very unlikely places, lead to love and (who knows) even happiness.

The Practicalities of Desperation

[gradyharp · 10/10 · 26 August 2008]

IRINA PALM may be a film too many people will overlook, thinking it either empty headed or pornographic. But word of mouth should correct those misconceptions, as this little quiet film is a tender story of an aging woman's sacrifices and healthy outlook in the face of adversity. IRINA PALM is that happy marriage of comedy and drama, a heartwarming tale that leaves the viewer with both a smile and a tear.

Written by Director Sam Garbarski with Martin Herron and Phillipe Blasband, IRINA PALM is the story of a widowed grandmother Maggie (Marianne Faithful in a luminous performance) whose young grandson Ollie (Corey Burke) is gravely ill. Maggie's son Tom (Kevin Bishop) and daughter-in-law Sarah (Siobhan Hewlett) cannot afford the transfer from England to Australia where the young lad could undergo curative treatment. Maggie decides she must find a job - a daunting task for an older woman with no particular job training - to make the treatment affordable. After numerous rejections from employment agencies, she spies a Sex Shop advertising for 'hostesses'. Thinking that designation means serving tea, etc, she enters the shady establishment and is interviewed by the owner Miki (Miki Manojlovic), a gentle man who gently describes the type of employment: Maggie would sit in a room and provide simple masturbation through a glory hole for anonymous clients. At first shocked by the job description, she in desperation investigates the business with the help of her soon to be best friend Luisa (Dorka Gryllus), and accepts the job with reservations. To her surprise (and the surprise of Miki and Luisa) Maggie gains a loyal following of customers, so much so that she is given the name 'Irina Palm'.

Keeping her employment a secret from everyone, she is the brunt of gossip from her old cronies and when she gives the money from her job to her son Tom without revealing its source, she causes a riff in the family. Maggie is courted by other sex shop owners who offer higher pay, but she remains faithful to Miki who advanced her the money for Ollie's trip to Australia. Tom stalks his mother to her workplace, discovers the source of her income, and explodes with anger and embarrassment that his mother would stoop to such depths. But Maggie's role as Irina Palm has given her confidence and also opened her heart not only to her grandson's future but to her own happiness as well. The ending may be expected by some, but will warm the hearts of everyone.

There are many moments of humor - Maggie's learning her trade, her ultimate confession to her cronies as to her occupation, etc - and this lightness makes the dramatic message more powerful. Faithful is extraordinarily fine in this difficult role, but the entire cast is sensitively responsive to the screenplay and to director Garbarski's vision. This is a film to cherish. Highly recommended. Grady Harp

Good performances outweigh odd conclusions and questionable story lines

[sitenoise · 7/10 · 18 June 2008]

Rarely have I enjoyed a film this much when I also found so much wrong with it. The biggest reasons for liking Irina Palm are Marianne Faithful and Miki Manojlovic. They are terrific, both humble and genuine in their roles of hand-jobbist and sex-club owner, respectively. I hesitate to call them prostitute and pimp because that would grossly overstate their actual vocations. It's gross overstatements that slightly mar this otherwise delightful film about a woman who, apparently, stoops to a pretty low standard in her efforts to save the life of her gravely ill grandson.

I write "apparently" because I couldn't help but conclude from this film that giving hand-jobs for a living is not all that bad. Maggie (M. Faithful) receives the moral high ground in her confrontations with both her friends and her son when the truth of her vocation is revealed. Her son makes a fool of himself, vastly over-acting and over-reacting when he discovers his mother working in a sex club. He sees her dressed in a typical day dress walking through the club. All the other women are half naked, but her son concludes that she is working as a whore. He calls her a whore, screams it at her without a single question. As the audience, we see this display of ridiculous emotion as misplaced. Maggie's daughter-in-law, who up to this point didn't seem to care if her son lived or died, rises to the defense of her mother-in-law. Maggie entered this degrading lifestyle to save her grandson. That's what is important.

Maggie finds strength and a new, authentic life in refusing to accompany her son and grandson to Australia, and instead returns to the sex club and kisses (and presumably falls in love with) the sex club owner, who, in response to Maggie's declaration that she likes his smile, affirming their budding closeness, says "I like the way you work." Gracious me.

Dorka Gryllus is also wonderful as the young veteran of glory hole work. But after developing her character, and her relationship with Maggie, she is abruptly tossed aside. The two of them had become friends, but Louisa (D. Gryllus) is unrealistically fired because, apparently, Maggie has taken away all her clients. On her way out, Louisa curses Maggie who has no idea why. When Maggie later approaches Louisa at her home in a run down housing project (isn't that where you'd expect a glory hole worker to live?) to attempt reconciliation perhaps, Louisa opens up a can of class-consciously aware worms in response, but then is shut out, turned off, and eliminated from the rest of the film entirely.

The script to Irina Palm (palm, hand-job, get it?) has to have some tongue planted firmly in cheek. For those who are curious, there are no penises shown in the film, only arm movements and careful camera angles that suggest the size of the unseen units must average one to two feet in length. The rise of this mild-mannered, fifty-year-old grandma who can't even say the f-word, from nobody to the "best right hand in London", with men in long queues to receive her services is absurd. It's just not that kind of skill. It's a very small segment of a larger talent pool.

Maggie wears her right arm in a sling for most of the film, suffering from "penis elbow", which is akin to tennis elbow only from a different vocation. Enjoy the film. Don't sweat the details of this simple and touching story, just soak in the wonderful performances amidst the (inexplicably chosen) mildly raunchy milieu.

Nice idea, but the movie very slow.

[Starkilla · 3/10 · 6 July 2007]

When I saw the trailer of the movie I wanted to watch it. The idea, the setting sounded interesting. But when I watched it, it felt that there was not much more in it than I had already seen in the trailer. Probably a person who is more shocked by the idea that someone is working in the sex business can appreciate it more fully. The film has its moments, but it has much more lengths. To me the reaction of her son to what she had done to save the live of his own son was a bit over the top. The other characters are developed rather nicely. But there was not enough density for a full length feature movie. In the sex club where she is working they seem to have only one song playing over and over again. And that is systematic for the movie. There is not enough change in it to get me hooked.

a touchy subject handled with delicacy and grace

[Buddy-51 · 28 July 2010]

Desperate to earn money so her critically ill grandson can have a much-needed operation, a modest and reserved middle-aged widow finds a job "pleasuring" men through a hole in the wall of a sleazy London strip joint. Before you know it, Maggie is doing quite the little business (years of not doing manual labor have apparently paid off), with a steady stream of satisfied customers queuing up outside her cubicle, and a boss more than satisfied with the money she's bringing in. She's even adopted a stage name, Irina Palm, renowned for having the "smoothest" hand in the business. But hiding the truth from her son and daughter-in-law and her snooty, gossipy friends becomes a daily challenge for Maggie as she debases herself for a noble cause.

Despite its rather - um, shall we say "touchy" subject matter - "Irina Palm" is a warm human drama about a woman willing to go to any lengths to help a person she loves. But that's only the glass-half-empty aspect of the story for, in a bizarre sort of way, this turns out to be one of the best things that's ever happened to Maggie. Indeed, her willingness to meet life on its own terms - then, eventually, her own - opens up whole new possibilities for Maggie as an individual, possibilities that have hitherto remained unrealized due to the various social roles and conduct restrictions that have been imposed upon her throughout the course of her life. Her new job gives her a type of freedom she's never had before, simply because it is she and she alone who is now determining what course that life will take.

"Irina Palm" may make some in the audience squirm at times, but the sheer preposterousness of what Maggie is being called upon to do in the name of money, and the empathy generated by famed singer Marianne Faithful's beautifully understated and heartfelt performance purge the film of any taint of luridness it might otherwise have had. There's actually quite a bit of humor here as well, as Maggie begins by swallowing her pride - then finding a pride of her own in a job well done, much to the consternation of the sanctimonious prigs who surround her. Yet, as directed and co-written by Sam Garbarski, "Irina Palm" makes it a point to be fair to its characters. This is particularly the case with Miklos, Maggie's boss (wonderfully played by Miki Manojlovic), who could easily have been portrayed as an irredeemable lout but who instead comes across as a shrewd but not unreasonable businessman with issues of his own to deal with and a spiritual connection with this strange woman who overturns not only his establishment but his heart. And fine performances by Kevin Bishop, Siobhan Hewlett, Corey Burke and Jenny Agutter ("An American Werewolf in London") add to the emotional richness of the piece.

This is a surprisingly tender and touching film that will have you rooting for the middle-aged widow with the magic hand almost in spite of yourself.

A small film, but entertaining

[Philby-3 · 7/10 · 29 January 2009]

It seems Belgian director Sam Garbarski didn't set out to make an English movie (the script was originally written by Phillipe Blasband in French) but even with a diverse cast and continental locations he has produced one. Marianne Faithful's performance as the slightly out of it middle aged widow who becomes a hand job operative in a Soho sex shop to earn money for her sick grandson's operation is wonderfully judged. She has to do this in secret, of course, under the nom de hand "Irina Palm" for this is England and she would suffer terminal embarrassment were her family or friends to find out what she is up to. In France, on the other hand, it might not matter so much.

Despite the sordid nature of "Irina's" fund raising efforts, this is a comedy-drama, not soft porn and the exposition is tastefully done – no graphic images are employed. The other main performances fit the fairly gentle tone, even the veteran Serbian actor Miki Manjlovic as the sex shop owner. The plot, as the makers admit, is a bit of a fairy tale, but satisfying nevertheless, and we can't help wishing "Irina" as well. I did wonder about her customers though. Paying for sex is at bottom, so to speak, pretty pathetic, even for someone with Erina's professional skill, and the film makes little attempt to look at the situation from the customer's viewpoint, though we do get the impression the customers are satisfied. Weirdly, Marianne Faithful is descended from the Sacher-Masoch family, but her character does not dish out pain here. A small film but pleasant and entertaining.

Intriguing Slice of Life

[nturner · 8/10 · 7 November 2008]

Maggie is a widow in her fifties living in a small English village outside of London. She has spent her life in a humdrum manner taking care of her family. Her grandson is very ill and in the hospital. His only chance of survival is surgery in Australia. The medical expenses will be paid by the health care system, but the transportation, etc. must be provided by the family.

Maggie does not have the money, and her son has been out of work for almost a year. Maggie is determined to get the money and goes off to London in a quest of employment of any sort. She is greeted with disdain by potential employers and employment agencies as she is an unremarkable woman with no experience or talent.

In an act of final desperation, Maggie enters a sex shop on a seedy street in London advertising help wanted. It is here that Maggie finds she has a talent much sought after by the clientèle of the shop. She is given the professional name of Irina Palm by her boss, Miki.

It should be obvious that there are going to be sizable repercussions from a modest widow so radically expanding her range of experience, and there are.

Marianne Faithful and Yugoslavian actor Miki Manojlovic are extremely effective as Maggie and Miki - two people who, despite their ages, are able to learn and develop from their experiences.

You'll find that Irina Palm is a very slow moving film but one that offers a very different view of human nature. It is an intriguing slice of life.

It's All about Marianne Faithful – And She's Terrific

[johnpetersca · 7/10 · 23 April 2008]

When I first saw Marianne Faithful in Irena Palm, she was so much the frumpy housewife that I almost didn't recognize her. As the movie continued, however, I saw her bright eyes and intense expressions and realized that she's one of the few women who, like the far less likable Leni Riesenstahl, will be sexy in old age. She's had an odd career, going from ingénue groupie to seen-it-all chanteuse, seemingly without a middle period. In this film, she emerges as a greater actor than singer (though her Pirate Jenny from the Threepenny Opera may be the best version of the song in English). Her talent's in full bloom in Irena Palm. She appears in almost every frame and holds together a story that, on its own, is not always plausible.

Maggie, the frumpy housewife, has a beloved grandson who's dying of some disease. He can go to Australia for experimental treatment but no one in the family can afford the 6,000 pounds needed for travel expenses. Maggie, without marketable experience, roams the streets of London in search of work to raise the money, without success until she applies for a hostess job at a grubby Soho sex show. Miki (Miki Manojlovic), the show's manager, likes the look of Maggie's hands and is willing to try her out. Seems the work involves masturbating anonymous men who, having been excited by nude showgirls, feed coins to a meter and stick their cocks through holes in a wall. Maggie does a fine job, develops a following, and proves an accomplished earner.

But, of course, things get more complicated, and not only because Maggie develops "penis elbow" and must wear her arm in a sling. Her women friends wonder how she's spending her time and she refuses to tell them. When she gets the necessary money and gives it to her son, he follows her to her workplace and is outraged to discover that his mother's a whore. His wife understands better, however, and insists on accepting the money for the trip to Australia with their son. The film ends with Maggie returning to Miki's sex club and kissing her pimp/manager on the lips in what is clearly a developing romance.

Ms Faithful has displayed, throughout her career, a visceral hatred of capitalism (her version of Working Class Hero is clearer and more intense than John Lennon's). Irena Palm can be seen as a sophisticated exploration of capitalist contradictions. Maggie is both satisfied by her financial success and happy that she can do something well, but the sordidness of her occupation is not minimized. Miki's sex club is realistically crowded and dirty. When her co-worker, Luisa (Dorka Gryllus), is unable to line up the men like Maggie, she is unceremoniously fired. Beneath its somewhat silly plot, Irena Palm makes serious statements, and Marianne Faithful enables it to happen.

moral parable about a mother's sacrifice

[ravcsv54-1 · 8/10 · 19 December 2007]

This artful and poignant film is a perfect balance between the sadness of how impotent adults are when a child is ill and the laughter that leavens the sadness. Music of Ghuzu guitar group propels the actions forward. Sensitive camera work doesn't allow us to be more than very limited voyeurs into the workings of a SoHo sex club where our protagonist grandmother, played to perfection by Marianne Faithful, in a role that shows us how multi talented this former rock chick of 1970's fame as the muse for Mick Jagger is as a mature woman. She does what she is able to do for not only her sick grandson, but for her son who is unable to "fix" what a "good father" should be able to. Her moral dilemma is resolved in how she limits and defines just what a "good mother" should do for her children to protect them from life's foibles and cruelties. The Desert Film Society of Palm Springs, CA screened this film on Sat. Dec. 15, 2007 for our 300+ members who thought it one of the best films we have shown this year, along with The Man in the Chair.

Hollywsood please note: how to make bad taste funny

[robinakaaly · 7/10 · 30 December 2010]

This dark Belgian comedy was actually set in London and the Home Counties. A child is dying and his only hope is a new treatment only available in Australia. The parents cannot afford the costs of getting to Australia, so the father's widowed mother, brilliantly played by Marianne Faithful, much stouter than she used to be, looks for a job. She ends up in a sex club where she is promised the sort of money required. At first she finds her functions highly distasteful, but practising "disassociation" she soon becomes exceedingly good at it. Unwilling to lose her, the club owner loans her the rest of the money. However, when her son follows her and finds out what he thinks she is up to, he is disgusted and refuses to take it. The wife is more pragmatic: this is the only way they can save their son. She brings her husband round and the head off to Australia. Meanwhile the widow, who has developed a fellow feeling for the club owner (both are outcasts), returns to the club.

At first I thought it would be an unpleasant film, but it was played with a light touch and well acted. Whether or not the widow's functions are replicated in real life, I would not know and they cannot be described: I suspect they were simply a storyline device. However, there was much humour in the scenes. There was much play between staid village life where everyone knows what everyone else does, and the widow's increasingly less furtive commutes into town. At a tea party for the local bridge club, she is pressed on what she does, and when she explains the looks of blank astonishment were very cleverly portrayed.

rent this film tonight!

[bmdeane · 10/10 · 26 November 2010]

Rent this film - my wife and I watched it together - it is wonderfully written and very very funny. It is great to see a middle aged women in a feature film lead and such an interesting subject matter. It's also a very moving film - my wife cried at the end and I admit to having a lump in my throat. A surprising, wonderful film.

I understand this film was a big hit in Europe, but the UK critics did not like Irina Palm.

Please don't let this put you off this film. UK critics are often mean about films, especially emotional films like this one.

The relationship of the 2 leads really works and each hold their own in the story. Ms Faithful's acting is odd at times but this adds to what is a wonderful well written story with a lot of heart...Rent it and see for yourself

Irina Palm

[TheFluffyKnight · 6/10 · 10 July 2008]

Maggie (Marianne Faithful) has "the best right hand in London". Which is a tad disturbing, considering she is a kindly, middle-class grandmother. But it's OK, because she's only pleasuring men in Soho so that she can pay for her dying grandson's medical treatment. Which is a shame, because Corey Burke, the young actor playing the grandson, is quite irritatingly bad, and the money would be better spend on acting lessons than life-saving procedures.

Thankfully, Kevin Bishop and Siobhan Hewlett inject some authenticity into the proceedings as Tom and Sarah, the devoted parents. Sarah is quietly optimistic, trying not to let the strain affect her son or her marriage. And Tom is quietly despairing, almost accepting his son's fate. Until, that is, his mother hands him a huge wad of cash and refuses to tell him where it came from.

Of course, none of this really matters. Nobody will walk into the cinema wanting to see a family come apart at the seams dealing with the possibility of their son's death. No, the punter's will buy their tickets for Irina Palm to see how a grandmother deals with giving the best hand jobs in Soho.

It's all done very quaintly. Maggie winces her way through her first few clients, before getting to grips (pun intended) with her new profession. And all the while her relationship with her stuck-up friends at home deteriorates, while her friendship with Miki, the club owner, blossoms.

It's all very predictable, really.

Entertaining, though. The script seems a bit forced at times, as do the performances, and the occasional attempts at some kind of social commentary aren't as successful as they could have been. And the soundtrack is oddly bleak, given the film's comedic bent. In fact, there's quite a list of faults. But somehow, Irina Palm manages to entertain, and there's not a lot more you could ask for.

Intriguing, sensitive and amiable treatment of an emotional issue

[robertemerald · 9/10 · 2 April 2019]

I must admit it took me a few minutes to warm to this brilliant piece. Marianne Faithfull in 2007 didn't seem to have much screen presence. After ten minutes or so that awkwardness didn't matter a drab, and the show took off on such a remarkable tangent that I was captivated, and, with full credit to the production team here, never wavered. The cast, and that is everyone including the punters, was brilliantly chosen. The story is carefully plotted and original and also never wavered. Marianne Faithfull ended up doing a brilliant job, accurately reflecting a woman's turmoil and adversity, and sometimes winning, as she labours through her challenging journey. I loved the family as well, and the manager's role was also a deft touch, played with conflicting allegiances to a tee. The roles of various friends was a luminating side angle that gave everything a real world validity. What we have here is a little London gem, full of unexpected heart, an important examination of a suburban topic rarely investigated, and a truly stirring message of hope against the odds. I don't live in England so I don't know of Health Department difficulties, and, of course, that may have changed by now, but this wonderful movie also brings a tragedy to light in that regard. All up Irina Palm pretty much made my evening. Bravo!

Making Money through the Hole in the Wall...

[tim-764-291856 · 7/10 · 15 July 2012]

I'm not talking about a cash dispensing machine outside your bank, here, either! What could have been a very dodgy premise for a drama with comic overtones, Sam Gabarski's film just about gets the balance right.

Marianne Faithful provides a reassuringly measured and dependable performance as the "widow who w*nks". Finding her grandson's very serious illness can only be treated by a costly hospital stay and treatment down in Australia she responds to an ad for a 'hostess' in Central London, and thinking that that would involve making the tea, the look and body language of poor Maggie, when the penny drops is awkward - and priceless.

She does, of course go on to take up the job and in the process, makes quite a name for herself, soon earning the titular name, quite an accolade, apparently, in the appropriate social circles...

In the sleepy village where she lives, the tea-drinking set (including a very prim Jenny Agutter) who tut-tut more than a out-of-tune moped, Maggie finds both a strangely enthusiastic and two-faced response - which actually provide the best lines in the whole film.

The relationship with her son is understandably strained as he thinks only of his sick child and when he eventually discovers his mother's way of getting the cash, the subsequent emotional fireworks are very believable. However, it is Maggie's relationship with her boss, Miki, the rather slimy Eastern European immigrant who is in competition with other Soho establishments that is the most well handled and satisfying.

Of course, there's always going to be unsavoury aspects to this sort of film, depending on one's point of view, of course but generally, it went as far as it needed to. One's imagination more than made up for the rest and we didn't see anything we'd probably not want to, though there is some female nudity.

Before everyone goes out and announces that here is a film that empowers women and gives people with few qualifications a real chance to earn big bucks, it is generally an unlovely movie. The music is monotonous and depressing, the surroundings dour and there is a whiff of desperation, on many fronts. Having said that, it's pretty good, for what it is but thankfully, unlikely to ever to become mainstream.

I saw it (again) on BBC2.

Dissapoiting

[osaltkjel · 2/10 · 24 February 2008]

I rented this film because it had received great reviews by Norwegian newspapers and so on, 5 and 6 eyes of the dice. And further on I thought this film would be typical British in terms of showing how something "exciting" like a sex club could be funny and not exotic at all, like they did in Full Monthy.

The first sign that this wasn't the movie I expected came in the opening where there was a music so depressing that could kill all enthusiasm. And it continued all through the film. After half an hour where we had been shown how miserable this middle-aged lady was and what she was willing to go through to save her grandchild I thought that something was going to happen, that the film would turn around. But it never did. This story could be told in 15 minutes, there is no reason to make it longer than that. You might think that making it as long as it was was to show the depth of the characters and what they went through, but they weren't even close to give this any deeper meaning or emotion. I really think they went too far in describing the misery. For example the behavior of the people in the bank. Nobody in a bank talk to a customer like that, not even close.

And at the sex club they play the one song over and over again, and she's so good jerking them off that they stand in lines so long that they would probably had to wait an hour to be jerked off, and that hour had to be spent in between other horny males...come on, this was so exaggerated and stupid that I was embarrassed.

I could not recommend this movie. Normally I like different and odd films, but this was just dull and depressing without any deeper message.