Nora (2000)

After being born in a workhouse, Nora (2000) became a laundress and later a chambermaid. With an impoverished background like this, how could she obtain fame? Well, by marrying a writer! Pat Murphy’s R rated drama follows the lust story of Nora Barnacle (Susan Lynch) and James Joyce (Ewan McGregor). Although they were married for life, this biopic only covers less than a decade of their tumultuous relationship. It documents their initial meeting in Dublin when Joyce experienced love at first sight. Nora did not. But eventually she changed her mind and the couple had their first romantic encounter on June 16, 1904 — a date now celebrated as Bloomsday per Joyce’s modernist novel “Ulysses” (1929). Yes, James kissed and told! And Nora wasn’t pleased with him. Yet we were pleased to see her hubby with a chubby shed his threads to have sex with her. At the film’s 37-minute mark, Mr. McGregor’s McChest, McBack and McBum can be seen as the nude dude bangs his woman from behind! During his career, Ewan went on to play other real life people, such as Victorian editor Norman Warne in Miss Potter (2006); American aviator Eugene Luther Vidal in Amelia (2009); a grownup Christopher Robin Milne in Christopher Robin (2018); and the titular fashion designer in Halston (2021) for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. But when it comes to provocative portrayals, we’re won over by McGregor’s thrusting tail in Nora!