Irina Palm DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Drama about Desperate Grandma Who Turns Tricks to Pay Bills

Maggie (Marianne Faithful) adopts the name Irina Palm while secretly employed at a whorehouse in London. This frumpy, overweight member of the geriatric set isn’t exactly what most johns are looking for when they come to a bordello.
Luckily, her clients don’t want to see who they are having sex with. No, they pay to stick their privates through a hole in the wall in order to be satisfied by the hands of whoever happens to be on duty on the other side.
To be honest, the movie is not as salacious as it might sound, as it is less about the goings-on inside the house of ill repute than about what drove Maggie to the world’s oldest profession. Turns out she has a seriously-ill grandson (Corey Burke) urgently in need of a life-saving operation, and his parents simply don’t have the money to pay for the operation. Desperate times call for desperate measures, hence this suburban granny resorted to a shady way to raise some quick cash.
However, Maggie’s predicament is complicated when her alter ego Irina proves to be one of the more popular “girls” in the club. And suddenly, she increasingly finds herself the subject of gossip among her suspicious neighbors.
Will she be outed before she makes enough moolah to retire? Or might she not even decide to quit? At heart, this intriguing character study poses the ethical question whether what would ordinarily be considered reprehensible behavior might actually become socially acceptable when done for altruistic reasons.
A thought-provoking drama, which arrives in a timely fashion, given these dire days of skyrocketing medical costs and politicians being caught consorting with high-priced call girls and playing footsie with police decoys in bathroom stalls.

Very Good (3 stars)
Rated R for nudity, sexuality and profanity.
Running time: 103 minutes
Studio: Strand Releasing
DVD Extras: Interviews with cast members and director Sam Garbarski, plus theatrical trailers.

To see a trailer for Irina Palm, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOooLNJj_R8