An average movie

After watching ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’, I thought it was time to see Richard Gere’s other classic from the 80’s. Even though I didn’t really like ‘An Officer…’, 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 me… 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 ‘Pretty Woman’, never really sleazy like ‘9 ½ weeks’ or dark like ‘Klute’. Indeed, the flick never really knows what it should be and it mixes a glimpse of a gigolo’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 can’t say I really enjoyed it. To conclude, I think I’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.

6/10