Age of Consent (1969)

Powerful

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

It's ironic this review is marked with a spoiler warning because nothing much happens. Near the beginning of the film James Mason's character is naked in bed with a woman (although they are both covered with the bed sheets) while watching a TV interview of himself say - "I don't have any plans, just wander around a bit and take a look". There you go, this moment says everything about this movie. From here onward you are wasting your time watching the movie because things happen for no apparent reason ... unless you are hanging around to see Helen Mirren topless. So anyway, he goes to a secluded island to paint because he does, he uses Helen Mirren as his model, while she is swimming he asks her to go naked because, (paraphrasing) he "doesn't like how the dress affects her form" - she waits - "and I'll pay you $1.50 an hour" - she takes her dress off. If you were hanging around to see Helen Mirren topless then you have seen everything you wanted and you can stop the movie there.As a "coming of age" movie, as a romance movie or as whatever label you try to put on this movie - there is no real story. The movie doesn't really explore anything interesting such as their relationship, her sexuality, his desires, his mindset or anything. A lot of nothings happen then movie ends when he decides to get in the water with her. I give the movie 3 stars because the actors are not awful and the island is pretty.

Movie Girl - I just wanted to add something I think is important - the real heart of the story. First I have to say I was still in high school when this film was made and never saw it until a friend sent me a copy recently.I do think they went a bit far with the nude scenes, but the girl very nicely played by Helen Mirren was genuinely naive and was suddenly realizing that she had a nice figure. At the same time Cora as the young girl picked up on the fact that she was becoming attracted to this erudite artist with the great voice, of course. - James Mason was the "elderly" artist. She had genuinely fallen for him and was very hurt that he had made their association a "paying" affair. He bought her fish and did not seem personally interested in her. He also painted her in nude scenes.Cora's aunt? is always wrongly suspecting her of a sexual rendezvous and trails her around. When she falls over a cliff, the girl has little remorse. During the story we see Cora reject the man in the boat making sexual advances and also the guy who shows up in the cottage who is curious about the artist's paintings. (So we see that Cora is not a person who is promiscuous, nor is the artist, usually.). The painter explains to his overly curious visitor that it is not a personal affair.All along in an invisible fashion was the title of the film, Age of Consent which meant just that. Cora was supposed to be 17 and for this very reason the painter does not make advances to her. At the same time she does not think of this and takes it all as a rejection. The ending is quite delightful -- no spoiler intended as she accuses him of not caring about her at all and is in the water - splashing at him and he says that is not true. After the splashing scenes we can well imagine the scenes that ensue.So as a person who usually likes older films for romance I do admire James Mason and for this reason watched the film. I think he and Helen Mirren made this story into something more than a risqué adventure. The key element at the end was love for both, though the painter was too old for his model. It was all in the perception of both.And what of the girl he had sex with in the beginning? Well, I guess he was carried away. James Mason later married this girl, Clarissa Kaye in the 70's. I was glad to read that James escaped from his disastrous first marriage; sadly did not marry again until years later.One thing more - Some people ventured the opinion that the term Age of Consent was outdated but I do not believe this is so. It made a nice undercurrent for the film and its ultimate denouement.

Put together the worlds best actors with an Oscar winning director and what do you get? Probably worst film any of them have ever been in. Struggling for an explanation, I hone in on the awful wooden screenplay. But that's too generous. The director must get the blame for totally failing to bring out the talents of the normally skillful cast. Mason makes a go of it, apart from the unconvincing accent, but Helen Mirren appears woefully miscast as a downtrodden local girl with natural beauty and personality that is supposed to inspire the artist. She does not demonstrate enough rough edges to be believable. Helen Mirren has just stepped out of the Royal Shakespeare Company (as the cast credits insists on reminding us) and the director should have realised that, and demanded more of the actors. Mind you, I don't recall her ever playing this type of role again.

The British-Australian film 'Age of Consent' was released in 1969 - the same year as the publication of the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name on which it was based, and also the death of its author, the well known Australian artist Norman Lindsay. It appears to have once been released briefly in some North American cinemas but only in a heavily bowdlerised version with its playing time significantly cut. Until last year no DVD was available in North America although one was released in Australia in 2005, and until the film was shown on the TCM TV channel I did not even remember that it existed. The long delay in marketing it here seems a pity as it was a very enjoyable and rewarding film to view, but it is now part of a double label disk (with 'Stairway to Heaven') released by Sony which I recommend unreservedly to all IMDb users who are interested. It will probably appeal particularly to those viewers who also enjoyed 'Sirens', a better known film also featuring incidents from the life of the same Australian artist.The theme - a talented but burnt out artist taking a break from his regular lifestyle to recharge his batteries, and becoming re-energised through a chance friendship formed with a young person from a very different background - is somewhat hackneyed, but with a good cast it can still be very effective. James Mason, as Bradley Monahan gave one of the great performances of his career playing a jaded 60 year old Australian painter who returns from New York to an isolated island on the Great Barrier reef off the Queensland coast for what appears to be an extended vacation, whilst a 24 year old Helen Mirren - straight from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre - changed horses completely here to give a remarkably mature interpretation of Cora Ryan, a lonely and unsophisticated orphaned teenager trapped in an isolated and unrewarding life with her drunken and quarrelsome grandmother. When Cora meets Bradley she starts by regarding him as a possibly useful source of pocket money, quickly comes to respect him for what he is, and finally develops a real affection for him. Michael Powell, returning to directing after the failure of Peeping Tom, was as usual both deft and effective, although more easy going and less powerful than for example in Black Narcissus. The colour cinematography was mostly a delight - the three strip Technicolor process used avoided the garish colours so often encountered in travel documentaries and many major feature films. I felt that the principal weakness of this film lay in Peter Yeldham's film-script, but it may well have originated in Lindsay's novel. He was one of Australia's best known artists and during his long career as both artist and writer, one may assume that he must have experienced periods when he felt like the artist of his story; this film certainly conveys the feeling of becoming burnt out and drained of creative energy just as he may himself have experienced it. I have not read the book and my quarrel with the film-script may or may not also extend to it, but I felt that by featuring a long series of very unlikely events, it unfortunately made the film appear to be some sort of dream story or myth rather than a real life drama. In fairness both Lindsay and the scriptwriter may have been aware of this problem and have accepted it as inconsequential. Their object was to convey the reality of loss of artistic vision for any artist, and the final film-script did this very effectively. I found that, when I stopped analysing the mechanical details of the events shown, and concentrated on the emotions with which they were associated, my recognition of the exceptional quality of this film rose sharply.SPOILER AHEAD: The film's title is misleading for anyone who, like myself, is not familiar with the story - in it Bradley, a 60 year old worldly wise artist, makes no attempt to seduce his new under age model. Clearly if such a thought has ever entered his head he has rejected it instantly. But as Cora continued to model for him over many weeks they develop a very real friendship. The climax of the film is the confrontation which leads to the accidental death of Cora's grandmother (and the highly improbable sequence in which a local policeman decides that this does not even warrant a formal open inquest), Only after this, and right at the end of the film, does Cora show that she is very disturbed by the complete absence of any personal attention being paid to her by her new friend, something she feels must indicate some significant failing or inadequacy on her part. The film closes with Cora, reassured on this point, starting what appears likely to become a successful attempt to seduce him.