Just perfect...

A Masterpiece!

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This film marks the first starring role for Helen Mirren and she appears in quite a few tasteful nude scenes. Because of this, it's certainly not a film for the prudish!James Mason plays Bradley, an aging artist who feels that his work has stagnated. So, on a whim, he decides to relocate from Sydney to the wilds of Queensland in Northeast Australia. There, he lives in a hut and has a simple but lovely life along the beach. There he meets a gorgeous young lady, Cora (Mirren) and she stimulates his creative drive...and he begins making art that he is once again proud of and wants to make more. The problem is that she is very young and he is an older man...and her disgusting grandmother thinks that there's some hanky panky going on...which there isn't...at least for now!This is a slow but enjoyable film. What I appreciated is that while this is by no means a comedy, little comedic touches were used here and there. I also appreciate how different the film is. Although Mason ALSO starred in "Lolita", the tone and style of the two films are like night and day...and I prefer "Age of Consent".

An elderly artist (James Mason) thinks he has become too stale and is past his prime. His friend (and agent) persuades him to go to an off-shore island to try once more. On the island he rediscovers his muse in the form of a young girl.This film is notable for two reasons: as the final film of Michael Powell, and for the first starring role of Helen Mirren. The film made my list of to-see because I have been going through the complete works of Powell. I must say, however, this is not one of his great works. Still a good film, but a far cry from his great entries.What really disappointed me was just how "1960s England" the film is. The art show, the idea of looser morals... it makes the story seem less timeless than it could be. That in itself does not ruin anything, but it does not help.

Michael Powell, the famed British director best known as half of the famous Powell and Pressburger filmmaking team, was certainly in a rut in the late 1960s. After the vicious press response to his 1960 progressive serial killer thriller Peeping Tom, it was near impossible for him to make a film in England again. Nine years later, he found hope in a small production with James Mason, one of the most respected of British actors, to be shot in Australia. The story could not have been more fitting.Age of Consent tells the story of an artist disconnected from himself and his art. Having been a success, he feels aimless and almost without passion. His solution is to move to a small shack on the coast of the Great Barrier Reef and attempt to renew his interest in painting and eventually life itself. Aside from the collection of unique characters surrounding him, he finds a catalyst for retribution in Cora, a young, sweet but determined young girl who longs to escape from her non-idyllic paradise in which she is controlled by a gin-swilling, ungrateful grandmother who sees her only as the second coming of her mother, the former town prostitute.What is really great about this film, aside from the gorgeous color cinematography that captures impeccably the grandiose beauty of Australia, is the story of the reawakening of the artist. Certainly this had to inspire Powell, who was himself in need of an awakening and perhaps felt a connection with Bradley Morahan. To his credit, he directs very fine, perhaps not to the degree of perfection as earlier films like The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 49th Parallel or The Red Shoes, but for such a film as it is he holds it at a fine pace while also keeping our interest as we watch a man push aside all distractions in search of the return of his passion for art and life. Some feel since this is not in the pantheon of great Powell and Pressburger films that it is mostly dismissive. I disagree. Powell shows us here the need and desire artists have to create and the pains necessary to fulfill that urge. While not of historical or national importance as his earlier films, this is certainly a memorable late career achievement for Michael Powell. If you like his more famous films, this is one to check out if only to understand how an artist becomes rejuvenated.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS If I understand correctly, "Age of Consent" was Helen Mirren's first starring vehicle. She was already a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and, at 23, a real beauty. Playing opposite James Mason, then 60, Mirren acts the part of Cora, who wants to escape the Great Barrier Reef where she lives with her drunken and abusive grandmother, to become a hairdresser in Brisbane. Mason, as Bradley Morahan, a well-known and financially successful painter, comes to the reef from New York, seeking to restore his spirit in isolation. Disappointed to find others on the spit of land where he takes up residence, Morahan soon discovers Cora as a supplier of food. Shortly, he takes to sketching her and pays her to pose. Eventually, Morahan acquires everything needs to paint her. Mostly, she models in the nude, and she is often shown swimming naked under water. With exception of her pubic area, every part of her body is on display at one time or another, and an absolutely gorgeous body it is. Unfortunately, Mirren's nudity is displayed in the service of a story that is not very interesting and not very well told. Mason was a fine actor and is persuasive in his role. Michael Powell may have been excellent director, but his reputation was surely not built on the basis of this film. "The Age of Consent" refers to Cora's age, which is supposed to be 17 therefore making her sexually unavailable legally. Morahan displays no interest in having sex with Cora and, until the very end of the film, she shows no sign of wanting to have sex with him. But the age restriction helps to explain why grandma, normally very disagreeable, goes into an overdrive of sputtering rage at the interaction between Cora and Morahan. Mirren is slightly unconvincing physically at a 17 year old. However, she was already an accomplished actress when this film was made and her bearing and manner perfectly mirror the age of her character. I found this film interesting ONLY because it displays Mirren -- ALL of her -- at the beginning of a distinguished career. Mason, a fine actor, made many, many better movies.