After a number of successful collaborations in The Trip, 24 Hour Party People, and Tristram Shandy, Steve Coogan
and prolific director Michael Winterbottom explore the gaudy and exotic world
of porn and real estate king Paul Raymond in The
Look of Love. While authentically capturing Raymond's swingin' hedonistic
playboy lifestyle in free-spirited 1960s London, the film strains hard to give
us a reason to empathize with the man who was once the richest in all of
Britain.
If presented as merely a gaudy, decadent
sex-filled romp then The Look of Love would be headed in the right direction,
but Matt Greenhalgh's screenplay digs for meaning in Raymond's meaningless
life, in which all of the money in the world can't fix the arrogance that left
him a lonely, beaten man. The familiar crash 'n burn story begins with an
older Raymond telling his young granddaughter about all of the money properties
he owns in Soho's red light district. Property equates to respectability, and
for a man whose flashy lifestyle was built on a swath of upscale gentleman's
clubs, having the look of a credible businessman is paramount. And business was
definitely booming, keeping him and his gutsy, money-hungry wife (Anna Friel)
in the upper echelon of high society. 
But as Raymond's empire grows and he
begins to believe in his own hype, we see his standards fall in just about
every way. His wife briefly gives in to his inhibitions, letting him indulge in
the ways of a swinger until he finally ditches her for the young and stunning showgirl
Fiona Richmond (Tamsin Egerton). Fiona further encourages his lewd behavior,
joining him in three-ways and coke binges, and helping to introduce Raymond's
impressionable daughter Debbie (Imogen Poots) into the club scene. Even Fiona
grows weary of it after a while, but Raymond hardly seems to care, nor does he
notice Debbie's destructive drug habits. He's too busy name-dropping The
Beatles at every turn, indulging his every sexual whim, and looking for new
ways to push his smutty men's magazine past the lines of good taste. His classy
nightclubs devolve into crude, tasteless skin joints, and his theatrical
ventures become a means to get the talentless Debbie some work in the
entertainment biz. 
Told with great dash and energetic flair,
the film features a bubbly Burt Bacharach-inspired score that sucks you into
the spirit of the era. But as fun as the first half of the story is, that's how
dull and dour it becomes as Raymond's world crashes down around him. Regardless
of the inconsistent tone, it's all shallow style with a total lacking of
substance, and we learn nothing about Raymond that would make us empathize with
him, even though that is clearly the desired goal. We never see anything of him
beyond his basest urges and shocking self-involvement. Coogan is solid in the
role, but he's not exactly treading new ground playing a promiscuous, egoistic
blowhard.
The Look of Love isn't terrible, just maddeningly unsure of
what it wants to be and why Raymond's story is worthy of being told.
