Yes, Emma Thompson is nude

But it makes sense in "Good Luck to you, Leo Grande."

When I started writing this newsletter, the idea was that it would cover all kinds of topics. For example, I enjoyed writing movie reviews for Datebook and thought I’d do some of them. After all, I figured, if hardly anyone is reading, who cares? But people did start reading. And I did care. And I ended up doing a lot of local politics because they were hot issues.

But now, I’d like to reclaim some of that original territory. So (spoiler alert) here’s a movie review.

Emma Thompson rarely disappoints.

Her characters are almost always witty and smart and come off with a nonchalant beauty.

But most of all, she can act. She can play it straight, as her Best Actress Oscars for “Howard’s End” and “Sense and Sensibility,” remind us. But she can also play for laughs, or in the case of “Good Luck to You Leo Grande,” at least smiles.

She’s not much for physical comedy, but her line readings are impeccable. Check her out in the trailer.

She plays a 60-ish (Thompson is 63) retired school teacher named Nancy Stokes, who is pining for a sexual breakthrough. The only man she’s ever been with is her late husband, and he apparently approached sex like a visit to the gym — get in there, crank out a few reps and then flop over and cool down.

He is so sexually suppressed that he refused to consider getting oral sex. He thought it would be demeaning — to him.

The signature scene of Good Luck (next to a full, frontal nude appearance that we will get to in a minute) has to be her description of their typical coupling. Thompson’s take on the punch line is so pitch perfect that the movie gives it a call-back later.

After the first third of the movie I was already penciling her in for her third Oscar.

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However, there’s a plot.

The premise is that Nancy has hired a sex worker to be the alarm clock for her awakening of desire.

He is young Daryl McCormack, the Leo Grande to whom we are wishing good luck. Leo is a near-perfect libido whisperer. He’s handsome, discreet, suave and supremely confident.

Nancy and Leo meet in a hotel room several times and we gradually realize that, for the most part, they are the only two characters in the show. And if you’re putting two actors in one room for 90 minutes, they’d better be good.

And they are.

It’s just that pretty early on we establish the MacGuffin, the Hitchcockian device that drives the plot. It’s “the Big O.”

Nancy has not only endured dull, uneventful sex, she’s never had an orgasm. Nor, she tells Leo at the start, does she expect to experience one. She’s incapable of it.

Still, that’s one titillating MacGuffin. As you can imagine it sets up a lot of “will she or won’t she?” First she waffles on carrying through with the sex with Leo. Then, will she or won’t she be able to reach total Big O-ness?

The writers do all they can with the premise — and even come up with a mild, last second surprise twist — but there are only so many times Nancy can encourage Leo at one moment and bat him away the next.

The sexual ping pong certainly isn’t going to take up an hour and a half.

Therefore the script branches out, persistently pushing Leo to reveal some sad part of his past. It’s a shame because until then it looked like we were headed to some groundbreaking territory.

Until then we seem to be making the case that Leo is providing a genuine service to his clients, encouraging their sense of self-worth and offering emotional support. That Leo isn’t ashamed of what he does. He sees a benefit.

Instead we put him on the couch, which leads to Nancy making the kind of clueless choice that we all know the real Emma Thompson would never make, roiling her relationship with Leo.

Once that side trip has been explored we’re back to Nancy and the Giant O.

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Which leads to Thompson’s full frontal nude scene. It is at least mildly ironic that James Rado, once of the creators of the famous Broadway musical “Hair,” just died.

The notorious full-nude scene at the end of the first act was a national sensation. I was an 18-year-old high school senior when I flew to New York with a friend and spent a week. We got tickets to Hair, a couple of hicks from Colorado, and were appropriately wide-eyed, gawking at naked actors.

Thompson’s nude scene is not a sensation. It is very matter of fact. She looks calm, composed and unselfconscious. Nancy is utterly changed from the self-doubting, repressed woman we met at the start of the move.

Now she is — sorry, we have to say it — comfortable in her skin.

It is very brave, and also empowering. It’s also a very British actress thing to do. Well done.

All in all there are 45 entertaining minutes of Thompson and McCormack bantering and another 45 of slow going.

Still . . . Emma Thompson. Worth watching.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Twitter: @cwnevius