Silly crowd-pleaser that finds widowed grandma Maggie (Marianne Faithful) giving handjobs to strangers through a hole in the wall at a seedy Soho club its premise is meticulously handled for maximum satirical result, while paid sexual release is drained of lewdness in place of quaintness. The best hands in the biz, says smitten pimp-with-a-conscience Miki (Miki Manojlovic) and dubs her: Irina Palm. Endless sad-happy tropes of "The Full Monty" follow courtesy of its backstory that involves requiring some quick funds for grandson Ollie's (Corey Burke) urgent life-saving procedure in Australia. Director Sam Garbarski's idea of injecting social commentary involves doors shutting in Maggie's face hours before she brings new meaning to "working with one's hands" or the "daily grind". For all of Faithful's magnificent performance and her chemistry with best pal Jane (Jenny Agutter), "Irina Palm" is just too self-satisfied in its outlandish one-joke set-up and much too disingenuous in presenting its dingy low-end sex trade as lucrative and worst yet, as the reason for Maggie's self-empowerment after years of marriage and child-rearing.
Review of Irina Palm
