Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Woodyanders Aging and burnt-out artist Bradley Morahan (a splendid performance by James Mason) goes to an off-shore island in order to escape from stressful everyday society. Bradley finds a new muse in the enticing and energetic form of carefree young lass Cora (a winningly luminous portrayal by a very youthful and sumptuous Helen Mirren).Director Michael Powell, working from a thoughtful and perceptive script by Peter Yeldham, astutely captures the anguish and weariness of Bradley's plight, makes the most out of the breathtaking Australian seaside locations, and explores the substantial themes concerning the necessity for passion in any kind of creative endeavor and the potential peril inherent in an older man befriending a much younger woman in a tasteful, but still frank and provocative manner. Mason and Mirren play off each other exceptionally well; they receive sturdy support from Jack MacGowran as raucous deadbeat Nat Kelly, Neva Carr-Glynn as persnickety old bat Ma Ryan, Andonia Katsaros as friendly neighbor Isabel Marley, Harold Hopkins as the horny Ted Farrell, and Frank Thring as pompous gallery owner Godfrey. Hannes Staudinger's vibrant color cinematography provides a beautifully sunny look. Peter Sculthorpe's lush score does the soothing trick. A solid and satisfying movie.

Josh It's ironic this review is marked with a spoiler warning because nothing much happens. Near the beginning of the film James Mason's character is naked in bed with a woman (although they are both covered with the bed sheets) while watching a TV interview of himself say - "I don't have any plans, just wander around a bit and take a look". There you go, this moment says everything about this movie. From here onward you are wasting your time watching the movie because things happen for no apparent reason ... unless you are hanging around to see Helen Mirren topless. So anyway, he goes to a secluded island to paint because he does, he uses Helen Mirren as his model, while she is swimming he asks her to go naked because, (paraphrasing) he "doesn't like how the dress affects her form" - she waits - "and I'll pay you $1.50 an hour" - she takes her dress off. If you were hanging around to see Helen Mirren topless then you have seen everything you wanted and you can stop the movie there.As a "coming of age" movie, as a romance movie or as whatever label you try to put on this movie - there is no real story. The movie doesn't really explore anything interesting such as their relationship, her sexuality, his desires, his mindset or anything. A lot of nothings happen then movie ends when he decides to get in the water with her. I give the movie 3 stars because the actors are not awful and the island is pretty.

mcannady1 Movie Girl - I just wanted to add something I think is important - the real heart of the story. First I have to say I was still in high school when this film was made and never saw it until a friend sent me a copy recently.I do think they went a bit far with the nude scenes, but the girl very nicely played by Helen Mirren was genuinely naive and was suddenly realizing that she had a nice figure. At the same time Cora as the young girl picked up on the fact that she was becoming attracted to this erudite artist with the great voice, of course. - James Mason was the "elderly" artist. She had genuinely fallen for him and was very hurt that he had made their association a "paying" affair. He bought her fish and did not seem personally interested in her. He also painted her in nude scenes.Cora's aunt? is always wrongly suspecting her of a sexual rendezvous and trails her around. When she falls over a cliff, the girl has little remorse. During the story we see Cora reject the man in the boat making sexual advances and also the guy who shows up in the cottage who is curious about the artist's paintings. (So we see that Cora is not a person who is promiscuous, nor is the artist, usually.). The painter explains to his overly curious visitor that it is not a personal affair.All along in an invisible fashion was the title of the film, Age of Consent which meant just that. Cora was supposed to be 17 and for this very reason the painter does not make advances to her. At the same time she does not think of this and takes it all as a rejection. The ending is quite delightful -- no spoiler intended as she accuses him of not caring about her at all and is in the water - splashing at him and he says that is not true. After the splashing scenes we can well imagine the scenes that ensue.So as a person who usually likes older films for romance I do admire James Mason and for this reason watched the film. I think he and Helen Mirren made this story into something more than a risqué adventure. The key element at the end was love for both, though the painter was too old for his model. It was all in the perception of both.And what of the girl he had sex with in the beginning? Well, I guess he was carried away. James Mason later married this girl, Clarissa Kaye in the 70's. I was glad to read that James escaped from his disastrous first marriage; sadly did not marry again until years later.One thing more - Some people ventured the opinion that the term Age of Consent was outdated but I do not believe this is so. It made a nice undercurrent for the film and its ultimate denouement.

bobsgrock 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.