2007, Belgium/Luxembourg/UK/Germany/France
Drama
The story is not a new one -- a woman in crisis finds herself doing the unthinkable for the most honorable reasons. Hooker with a heart of gold, single mother with no way out...grandmother with a sick grandchild. Irina Palm wedges a woman with all the best intentions into the skeezy sex trade for the sake of her brood.
Sam Garbarski directs Marianne Faithfull as the woman in trouble. Middle-aged and soft-spoken, her character Maggie is not so much frumpy as invisible. A widow whose devotion lies with her son and his family, an already wearisome life takes a turn for the worse when grandson Ollie hits the end of his medical treatment in a small British village. His only option is to seek assistance in Australia, and he must leave within six weeks before his condition worsens.
Maggie gallantly seeks loans from banks and jobs from employment agencies, but is quickly denied for her existing debt and lack of skills, respectively. On her way home from the latest rejection, she passes a sign for "hostess wanted" at Sexy World and naively applies for the position.
After a discussion of the word "euphemism" and other expansions to her vocabulary, the club owner becomes mesmerized by her smooth hands. A star is born at the receiving end of a grand opening (see euphemism above). With a countdown and $6,000 to earn, Maggie shatters her inhibitions and literally turns on the red light for the sake of her grandson.
Slowly gaining confidence through her new persona (Irina because it is a sexy name, Palm because her clients need that sort of thing spelled out for them), Maggie allows her confidence to spread to other aspects of her life. Though she eventually confronts gossipy townspeople and stuffy friends, most of the time Maggie is soft and vapid, with mouth agape and a blank stare in her eyes. Her change in behavior is subtle and meant to be darkly comic, but the humor is driven more by the situation than the performance.
Despite the sobering topic of Garbarski's film, it never takes itself too seriously. She is admirable for her sacrifice but does not fail to earn the repercussions of working an underground job. Sexy World is just another occupation and her job is as mindless as cleaning toilets, though she does gain some appreciation for her rising if not anonymous reputation.
Irina Palm walks a thin line between drama and subtle comedy, and is pleasant enough in both regards. As Maggie runs from both her friends and her new boss whenever confronted about the truth, their honesty about their own troubled lives wear down her guard. Every character has been involved in a bad relationship, and scars are deep and quietly acknowledged. Each person chooses to find a separation between necessary evils and personal realities, but Maggie attempts to find a balance between the two. Some grandmothers bake cookies; this one pursues a more profitable endeavor and makes it her own.