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American Gigolo

Posted : 9 years, 11 months ago on 15 April 2014 09:35

American Gigolo is all slick surfaces and neon glossed artificiality. Midway through thereā€™s a murder-mystery thrown in, I donā€™t really know why, and frankly I donā€™t care. I think this film is all pretty on the outside, with nothing much going on beneath the surfaces. Of course, what else should one expect from producer Jerry Bruckheimer but a series of glossy images masquerading at something else?

Itā€™s a shame that the film feels so limp, it emerges out the gate as something sexy and interesting, here is a lonely man who provides thrills for a rich female clientele. Richard Gere preens and pouts marvelously in the role. Heā€™s incredibly handsome here, and he gives a great movie star performance, yet Paul Schraderā€™s script never truly gives him the opportunity to dig deep. Gere mostly just stands around in various states of (un)dress in Armani or drives down the PCH to Blondieā€™s classic song ā€œCall Me.ā€ Strange to think that this material feels so incomplete in Schraderā€™s hands, the man wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

It seems like the perfect subject matter for Schrader to explore, yet the execution isnā€™t what one would hope for. The ambivalence with which his character is explored doesnā€™t create much of a vested interest in the outcome of the murder-mystery. Neither does the romance with the married politicianā€™s wife (Lauren Hutton). These two elements feel half-baked, and take up most of the running time as the film progresses. Why would a woman with everything to lose throw it all away for Gereā€™s gigolo? That question never gets a satisfactory explanation or reasoning is given, this has a lot to do with Hutton not being entirely up to the task of convincingly portraying this woman. But man, American Gigolo has plenty of style to burn through.


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An average movie

Posted : 11 years, 5 months ago on 19 October 2012 08:57

After watching ā€˜An Officer and a Gentlemanā€™, I thought it was time to see Richard Gereā€™s other classic from theĀ 80ā€™s. Even though I didnā€™t really like ā€˜An Officerā€¦ā€™, I could see its appeal but I had even more a hard time to enjoy this other flick though. Why Roger Ebert loved this movie so much and even put it on his top 10 best movies released in 1980? It is beyond meā€¦ I can understand that for many women, to see Richard Gere portraying a gigolo, was a real wet dream but except for some full frontal nudity, I thought the whole thing was rather chaste though. Above all, I thought the tone was rather terrible. I mean, it was never really fluffy like ā€˜Pretty Womanā€™, never really sleazy like ā€˜9 Ā½ weeksā€™ or dark like ā€˜Kluteā€™. Indeed, the flick never really knows what it should be and it mixes a glimpse of a gigoloā€™s life, a love story and a police investigation but none of those elements were properly developed. In my opinion, they should have got rid off the love story, focus on the murder, make the whole thing way darker and unsettling and we could have ended up with a pretty good thriller. On a positive note, I must admit that Richard Gere gave a decent performance but, a part from that, I canā€™t say I really enjoyed it. To conclude, I think Iā€™m being really generous with my rating here but I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you have a weak spot for Richard Gere.


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