Review: How to Please a Woman

 

Gina (Sally Phillips) is in a bit of a rut. Her husband (Cameron Daddo) seems to have largely checked out of their marriage: being good at her job at an insolvency agency seems to be a career drawback. Then she's sacked in a company-wide downsizing that seems to just involve her, and before you know it she's running a male escort agency disguised as a cleaning service. Wait, what?

What actually happens is a little more complicated, but the end result is the same: she turns a struggling removalist company into a cleaning firm, only to discover that one of her staff - former stripper and all round hot guy Tom (Alexander England) - has been providing sex on the side. Word gets round, the clients want more, bingo bango Gina's a pimp.

Not that How to Please a Woman is anywhere near that crude. This is a surprisingly sensitive (considering the set-up could have come from a 70s sex comedy) look at what it is that women want, and it turns out it's a man who's good at cleaning and good in bed. The only thing that makes you a bad guy in this world is not being open and accepting, and even then the only punishment is missing out on all the fun.

There's not a lot of room for broad comedy here; a few mid sexual mix-ups is pretty much the limit, while a scene involving a remote-controlled vibrator and an exercise bike ends up being more about people connecting than getting laughs. 

As far as drama goes, there's not a whole lot happening there either. You'd think running an unlicensed sex service would provide plenty of scope for brushes with both criminals and the law - but again, this isn't that kind of movie. 

Don't expect any of the men involved to have any real problems with becoming male prostitutes either; their only concern is how to be the best possible lover (and cleaner) for their clients. Having Gina develop a relationship with the only employee who doesn't go out on call (Erik Thompson) seems like a bit of a cheat, but it's all part of the fantasy; it's a world where sex and love are two distinct things.

What this does offer is a fun, sunny vibe, as Gina gets her life together, her staff learn to be better lovers (and men in general), the local ladies (including Roz Hammond, Tasma Walton, and Hayley McElhinney) get their various needs taken care of, and the importance of knowing what you want and knowing how to get it - both in the bedroom and in life - is celebrated. 

It's a worthy moral; it just doesn't make for a particularly memorable film. 

- Anthony Morris