Sometimes, the greatest barriers to intimacy are the ones we erect ourselves.

In Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, now streaming on Hulu, Dame Emma Thompson plays “Nancy Stokes” (not her real name), a widow who lost her husband two years earlier. Her marriage, long and from the sounds of it excessively dull, did not provide her with any sexual satisfaction. In all her married life, she’s never had an orgasm, but she feels that is an unattainable goal.

Nor did her career (religious education) or her two children provide what she wanted out of life. As a result, she’s frustrated, insecure, and yet determined to turn that around. Enter Daryl McCormack (Peaky Blinders) as Leo Grande (also not his real name, and probably more of a pun), a young male escort.

Leo is, frankly, gorgeous,, smooth, and seductive. But try as he might, Nancy is too tightly wound, too insecure, and filled with too much self-loathing to do more than take off her jacket. But Leo persists, and the two have a tryst (off camera.)

Nancy wants more, though, so she books Leo a second time. This time she has a to-do list that she wants to plow through. But again, her barriers are up. The movie really focuses on the conversation between the two, with Leo struggling to break through Nancy’s pent-up sexual angst, and Nancy determined to find out much more about Leo than he is willing to share.

The movie provides copious examples of how using consent, even between a sex worker and his client, can be done in a way that is very erotic and arousing. But then the story shifts gears and shows how incredibly violating it is when someone doesn’t respect boundaries, in this case, Nancy.

The movie’s chief flaw is that after Nancy does the one thing Leo asks her not to, he agrees to see her again. Her betrayal was shocking, and not something that should be easily forgiven. Still, to move the plot forward, it must be.

Much has been made of the age difference between the two characters, but by now, we as a society should be truly over it, and indeed director Sophie Hyde and screenwriter Katy Brand really don’t dwell on it. Thompson, 63 to McCormack’s 29, also bares her body, flaws and all, but not in the same shot as her young lover, because the movie is not trying to highlight the age difference. This also isn’t a soft-core sex film; it has its erotic moments but that’s not the point of the movie.

Instead, this is a story about accepting oneself, from Nancy coming to terms with herself as a sexual being and Leo reckoning with his past. And most importantly, though sexual gratification can be purchased, you can only find that within yourself.