Personal Services (1987)

Feisty and resourceful waitress Christine Painter (splendidly played with earthy vigor and steely resolve by Julie Walters) turns to prostitution to support herself. Christine eventually becomes the madame of an immensely successful bordello which happily indulges the kinky carnal whims of an illustrious middle-aged clientèle which includes such respectable folks as judges, bankers, and members of Parliament. Director Terry Jones and screenwriter David Leland concoct a bawdy farce which manages to be quite funny and always engrossing without ever getting too vulgar or sleazy. Instead they treat the sordid subject matter with admirable wit, taste and sensitivity. For example, the clients just want to be accepted and tolerated as the blithely dirty old men that they are. Moreover, there's a surprising and even touching sense of compassion and humanity for the seedy main characters and their seamy profession. In fact, the topic of sexual deviance in its many permutations is handled in a commendably matter of fact way. Walters simply shines in her role; she receives first-rate support from Shirley Stelfox as brash tart Shirley, Danny Schiller as wise old transvestite pal Dotty, Alec McCowen as jolly regular Wing Commander Morten, Tim Woodward as jerky vice cop Timms, and Ewan Hooper as her disapproving father Edward. Well worth seeing.

If you find a poor working - class woman's gradual slide into prostitution funny then feel free to laugh your way through "Personal Services".Cynthia Painter made the best of the bad options available to her(sh#g or starve basically)but no way in real life was "fun" an option. The rest is mostly a myth(albeit a self - serving one)propagated by the Red Tops when Ms Painter's business finally came to their official notice. Late 20th century British sexual hypocrisy is exposed to absolutely no one's surprise and the Judicial System is shown to be open to corruption or so Ms Painter maintains,but then, as an earlier celebrity prostitute Ms Mandy Rice - Davis might say,she would - wouldn't she. Miss Julie Walters - an estimable actress perhaps slightly over - exposed on British television - plays Ms Painter in her customary no nonsense I'm working class and proud of it style.She is at her best in the movie's more serious moments before giving it her all as the wise elderly tart with a heart which was presumably how Ms Painter wanted to portray herself. Men are shown to be mostly weak or crooked or both,barely getting a fair crack of the whip unless it is wielded by Miss Walters or one of her acolytes. The whole media - induced "scandal" about the "People's Madame" was a storm in a teacup and soon forgotten in the newspapers' never - ending hunt for fresh sleaze."Personal Services" too was a bit of a nine days' wonder and Miss Walters herself has gone on to better things.What reputation it has is as a sex comedy but there isn't much sex in it and it isn't funny.Go figure.

beautifully acted, unexpectedly moving, hilarious, and at times very, very dirty, this film is "inspired by" the life of cynthia payne, one of the most notorious madame's in britain's history - julie walters is brilliant as a woman who evolves from a waitress struggling to make her rent, to a successful businesswoman running a brothel that caters only to "kinky sorts" - through all of it, she raises a son, forces her father to come to terms with the person his daughter has become, and has difficulty with the "charles and diana" ideal of love that she can never find for herself - perhaps the greatest quality of this film, though, is its ability to shock at every turn - just when you thought you'd seen just how honestly funny kinky sex can be, think again...

Personal Services is an exceptional film that has been underrated, ignored and obscured by the avalanche of goon comedies which crowd the late 80's and 90's. Its portrait of a kindly brothel keeper do-gooder (which might be described as the kinky, middle aged s&m version of Austen's Emma) is so packed with outrageous imagery, one could forget to admire its level headed attitude toward sex. The glee it takes at exposing the absolute silliness of adults on the subject, as well as its constant stabs at the hypocrisy of the British middle class makes it stand out. Neither of those subjects are particularly unknown to British comedy, of course, but Personal Services never lets up, and skewers so many shoddy English values at the rate of swatting flies.The film is a strong departure of style for Terry Jones, its director, whose former The Meaning of Life would lead us to imagine another style altogether. Certainly he is drawn to the material for its surrealistic and madcap flavor, but he surprisingly brings qualities of realism, detail and nitty-grit to the episodes that help keep the film grounded in a believable social milieu.The script, by David Leland (Mona Lisa) is a fictional account that follows the rise of Cynthia Payne, the English madame who became the darling of the English press after several arrests in the middle 80's. Leland also wrote and directed a film released the same year (Wish You Were Here) which captures Payne in her teen-age years, but Personal Services is much tighter, rapid-fire and more ambitious.The film veers between outrageous comic episodes and very real emotional moments that reflect the social realist scenes of earlier English films like A Taste of Honey and Room at the Top. The struggle of a woman deciding whether to take the plunge and become a prostitute; the scene where the heroine confronts her distant dad at her sister's wedding; the scenes that reflect the loneliness and isolation the heroine feels may not seem appropriate in a pull-out-all-the-stops laugh fest, but they help to deepen the themes of the film, and give it both depth and breath. One of the more melancholy themes that stays dominant in the film is the deep emotional price one must pay for being a non-conformist.The vivid imagery Jones brought to the Monty Python films serves an equally symbolic purpose here. The image of a prostitute with angel's wings flapping pitifully about a moonlit garden as she tries to escape the policeman who tackles her is an image which welds perfectly the film's sacred and profane themes and is unforgettable. And there are so many daring, in your face scenes ––the discipline scenes in the brothel; the exposure of Dotty in the john; the marvelous gift the madame gives both her father and son–– and they keep the film more surprising and fresh than most sex comedies of the 90's.Julie Waters gives one of her wittiest, shaded, and full performances but she is only one–– the many character actors in the film are perfect in tone and work together in extraordinary ways. The film serves as a reality check about one's own up-tight attitudes about sex. (Your own squirming should be a revelation! ) American viewers need to be very much on their toes, however, because some of the funniest dialogue is rapid (with authentic accents) and often thrown away. Also helpful is to realize the slang expression `willie' does NOT refer to a dolphin, but to a guy's you know what.I am always running into people who discovered this film on their own, and hold it high on their list of the greatest comedies. I urge you to discover it for yourself!