IRINA PALM Strand Releasing
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B+
Directed by: Sam Garbarski
Written By: Martin Herron, Philippe Blasband, story by Philippe Blasband
Cast: Marianne Faithfull, Miki Manojlovic, Kevin Bishop, Siobhan Hewlett, Dorka Gryllus, Jenny Agutter, Corey Burke, Meg Wynn-Owen, Susan Hirch, Flip Webster
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 3/12/08
Opens: March 28, 2008 As you begin to watch “Irina Palm,” you can’t be blamed for allowing your mind briefly to drift to the case of Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced governor of New York, a brilliant man who this time is simply not bright. His gubernatorial tenure has been reduced to one-liners on late-night shows, with Jay Leno stating that you can make a lot of money in politics. “Everyone who worked under Spitzer made $5,000 an hour.” The title character of Sam Garbarski’s movie may not have worked under anyone and did not quite make the equivalent of $5,000 an hour despite the current weakness of the dollar. Though the sex trade in Britain may be lucrative for some, it is not so for a dowdy, middle-aged woman who rents not her body but only the palm of her hand. “Irina Palm” is the alternately comic and sentimental story of a sexagenarian woman, if you will, living in a small, gossipy English town, who despite her lack of any employment experience needs to raise big money to save her cancer-afflicted grandson. The tale is wholly involving, the comedy quite toned down compared to other movies about oddities who worked the sex trade (think Nigel Cole’s “Calendar Girls”), and anchored by a sweet performance from a shy woman who learned that there’s no shame in giving men what they, uh, came for. Marianne Faithfull, now a matronly sixty-two years of age yet one who incredibly is a rock star once recording songs of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, performs in the role of Maggie, mother of Tom (Kevin Bishop) and grandmother of little Olly (Corey Burke), who is in a deteriorating stage of cancer. Olly needs experimental treatment to save his life, a protocol practiced only in Australia, but while the treatment there would be gratis, the airfare and hotels would require a hefty sum of money. After being refused employment because of her age and lack of experience and denied a bank loan because she has no collateral, she is about to throw in the towel when she notes that a SoHo club needs a “hostess.” Learning from the club’s owner, Miki (Miki Manojovic) that the job requires wanking men through a hole in the wall, she is at first aghast, but after hearing from Miki that her hands are soft, perfect for the job, and given an object lesson from a worker, she gets into the rhythm and soon has men queueing around the block for “Irina Palm.” The furthest thing from director Sam Garbarski’s mind is making a sex comedy like “Knocked Up” and “Superbad.” “Irina Palm” has no sleaze save for some images of exotic dancers, never showing graphically what Maggie is doing to earn the poundsterlings needed to get her grandson into that Australian facility. We can even accept the romantic attachment between her and Miki, well-deserved since the good woman has been widowed seven years to a man who cheated on her, no less. Maggie’s chats with her nosy neighbors are priceless, the snoops unprepared for the confessions that Maggie, in the end, freely offers. With exteriors photographed in England and interiors shot in Germany and Luxemburg by cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne, “Irina Palm” is an endearing British sex comedy with a most unlikely but thoroughly believable star. Not Rated. 103 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
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