Daryl McCormack and Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Nick Wall/Sundance Institute)

Director Sophie Hyde’s third film to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival (after 52 Tuesdays and Animals) was shot in Norwich, Norfolk, during last year’s lockdown, and it shows. In its few exterior scenes, the streets are empty, as is a hotel restaurant where the only customer is 60ish Nancy Strokes—at least that’s who she says she is. Nancy (played by the film’s raison d’être, Emma Thompson) has come to this mid-budget establishment for a series of trysts with a twentysomething sex worker, alias Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack), a strapping, baby-faced, choirboy-next-door type. Most of the time, these two exist in a bubble: the majority of the story line takes place in the same hotel room.

The emphasis is not on the visual (the movie is flatly shot with hardly any variation of lighting) but on the dialogue; Nancy is a chatterbox, using question after question as a delaying tactic in her first hookup with Leon. (Two questions not to ask sex workers about their line of work: “You don’t feel demeaned then?” “Or degraded?”) Initially, the dialogue’s more like a conversation between two strangers on a plane then a sex for hire arrangement. Understandably, Nancy fumbles: her husband died two years ago, and Leo might become only the second man she has slept with. A former religious education teacher, though it’s never mentioned for what denomination, Nancy confesses that she has never had an orgasm and that she has promised herself to never fake a climax again. Given the circumstances, the film feels a bit chaste as Nancy beats around the bush, so to speak. The film could easily be rated PG-13—until the end, although more on that later.

Leo uses strategies from his limited wheelhouse to help her to relax, to change the topic to her needs while she asks about his mother and what she thinks about his calling. Whereas Nancy is brittle and physically stiff, Leo (beguiling newcomer McCormick) is relaxed, confident, but a bit confused on how to break down Nancy’s defenses. He’s a straight man, so to speak, a foil for her aggressions, observations, and disruptions. When the two finally settle into bed, the camera tastefully cuts to the window and then to the second booked appointment. For her next go–round with Leo, she has written a detailed list of sexual feats she would like to try at least once.

The role of Nancy serves as a greatest hits compilation for Thompson. She’s called upon to act flustered and more than a bit unconsciously condescending, and to yield a barbed wit until she finally loosens up and forgoes the breezy banter. By centering on Nancy, who (however tentatively) seeks out pleasure after living a life of denial (“There are nuns out there with more sexual experience than me”), the two-hander dramedy recalls a few taboo bursting, let-it-all-hang-out 1980s British sex comedies, like Personal Services and Rita, Sue and Bob Too. In some ways, Nancy is a throwback to a pre-Swinging Sixties paradigm of virtue. The social changes of the last decades have passed her by while she has been frozen in time until her transformation in the epilogue.

There, Leo and Nancy, and the film itself, drop trou and gleefully get down to business and the setup no longer feels written by the numbers. Thompson joins the rare group of actresses of a certain age whose characters are allowed to shed their inhibitions on screen. As a result, the film stands out namely for celebrating an older woman’s sexuality. Hyde matter-of-factly films the final hotel room romp in full frame for both Nancy and Leo. The only bit of mystery left is whether Nancy will achieve her orgasmic goal.

As soon as this filmed premiered, the takeaway on social media centered on the nudity. Still, the clickbait doesn’t overshadow the mission Hyde and screenwriter Katy Brand have undertaken. In having Nancy examine herself before a mirror without a stitch of clothing, the film directly takes a parting shot at ageism. The rest of the film is just foreplay.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande was acquired by Searchlight Pictures and is scheduled to be released later this year.