The Look of Love

Play trailer

The Look of Love

2013

1h 41m

Biography

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

54%

Tomatometer

70 Reviews

34%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Paul Raymond (Steve Coogan) builds a porn, entertainment and real estate empire that makes him the wealthiest man in Britain, but drugs doom his beloved daughter, Debbie (Imogen Poots).

Critics Consensus

While it may not add up to the definitive Paul Raymond biopic -- or take full advantage of Steve Coogan's many gifts -- The Look of Love still proves an entertainingly old-fashioned look at the Swinging London of the 1960s.

Read Critics Reviews

Deborah Ross

The Spectator

Although it wants to be a tragedy - I could feel it straining at the leash to go in that direction - it never quite pulls it off, so to speak.

Sep 4, 2018

Full Review

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

metro.co.uk

It's a cracking true story and the cast, including an impossibly free-spirited and leggy Tamsin Egerton, are outstanding but beneath the smart one-liners, frustratingly little is laid bare.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 5, 2017

Full Review

Graham Fuller

Film Comment Magazine

Coogan's own impersonation is precise, but the melancholy that finally engulfs Raymond is beyond him.

Nov 4, 2013

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

The Look of Love is deserving of a look, but don't be surprised if there aren't more than a few similarities between other tales told before.

Aug 7, 2019

Full Review

Matthew Bond

The Mail on Sunday (UK)

This biopic of property magnate and pornographer Paul Raymond is mildly entertaining at times and does raise a few cheap chuckles, but it's as shallow as a Soho puddle after a spring shower.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 31, 2017

Full Review

Rochelle Siemienowicz

The Big Issue (Australia)

If [Michael Winterbottom] wanted to drain the Soho smut industry of all nostalgic glamour and fun, then he's succeeded.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 15, 2017

Full Review

Read all reviews

hardy c

What a mess. The direction, script, editing, all horrible. I didn't know who half the people in the film even were. Many times I expected people to show up who I had seen in previous scenes and inexplicably they did not (like how many mothers would not attend their daughter's cancer surgery?) I like Coogan as an actor but his character was a degenerate and only sympathetic without the "sym". He made Hugh Hefner look like a Boy Scout (perhaps not the best analogy since the Scout's own sex scandals.) Regardless, in more competent hands he and the film would not have turned out so boring and predictable.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Plenty of coke and sex.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This film was like his plays ... full of nudity and boooooobs yet so boring.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This biopic from Michael Winterbottom has an excellent cast including Imogen Poots and Steve Coogan and is about Paul Raymond who was once Britain's richest man, and was in the adult entertainment industry. Though he led an interesting life, the film is somewhat dull. Still, I thought it was worth a watch and enjoyed the performances.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A glorification of the life Paul Raymond which loses a bit of its focus with its repetition. Coogan is definitely a charismatic lead though.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Enjoyable biopic of a sex industry mogul with Steve Coogan a good choice for lead to give it a nice comedy edge throughout.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Michael Winterbottom

Director

Steve Coogan

Paul Raymond

Anna Friel

Jean Raymond

Tamsin Egerton

Fiona Richmond

Imogen Poots

Debbie Raymond

Chris Addison

Tony Power

Diana

7%

26%

Diana

Watchlist

Burton and Taylor

100%

59%

Burton and Taylor

Watchlist

Nowhere Boy

81%

74%

Nowhere Boy

Watchlist

Control - Love Will Tear Us Apart

88%

89%

Control - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Watchlist

A Street Cat Named Bob

77%

77%

A Street Cat Named Bob

Watchlist

TRAILER

for A Street Cat Named Bob

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

Paul Raymond (Steve Coogan) builds a porn, entertainment and real estate empire that makes him the wealthiest man in Britain, but drugs doom his beloved daughter, Debbie (Imogen Poots).

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Producer: Melissa Parmenter, Alice Dawson, Josh Hyams
Screenwriter: Matt Greenhalgh
Distributor: IFC Films
Production Co: Revolution Films, Baby Cow Productions
Genre: Biography, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 5, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 26, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $14.6K
Runtime: 1h 41m

Most Popular at Home Now