Gigolò per caso

Woody Allen isn't really an actor for hire. It's just not something he does: if he acts, he generally prefers to do so in films he also writes and directs, largely because - one suspects - he only feels comfortable playing parts that he knows are tailored to his particular strengths. So it's odd and potentially exciting that he agreed to take a rather key role in Fading Gigolo, a passion project for actor-turned-writer-and-director John Turturro. As it turns out, it's easy to see why Allen agreed to join the cast: when the film works, it can be as charmingly quirky, odd and romantic as Allen's own movies. Even when it doesn't work, the cheeky byplay between Allen and Turturro's characters remains a selling point.

The story goes like this: bookseller Murray (Allen) encounters hard times in the bookselling business, and hits upon the novel idea of playing the pimp to his unexpectedly charming friend Fioravante's (Turturro) gigolo. As the business takes off, Fioravante encounters women both adventurous and shy. But, even in the face of such voluptuous and voracious beauties as Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone) and her girlfriend Selima (Sofia Vergara), he's particularly intrigued by Avigal (an intriguing Vanessa Paradis), the buttoned-down widow of an orthodox rabbi who's barely surviving the extremely strict rules and regulations that accompany her husband's death.

There's a lot to enjoy and even love in Turturro's gentle, quaint film. He excels in injecting tenderness into scenes that are practically structured to be awkward, like Fioravante's first encounters with both Dr. Parker and Avigal. But both turn out to be strangely, sweetly tender, as he manages to tap into something primal within both women that they both sorely need. The gentlemanly respect with which Fioravante treats all the ladies brought to him by Murray help the film's slightly out-dated message - women need a man to help them break down the walls that surround their hearts - go down a lot easier.

But Fading Gigolo also veers into considerably less successful territory, chiefly by turning Fioravante and Avigal's relationship into an uncomfortable love triangle with Dovi (Liev Schreiber), an orthodox Jew who serves in the community police force in Avigal's neighbourhood and has loved her from afar for years. There are a couple of fun comedy beats in this romantic entanglement, particularly when Avigal remains determinedly unresponsive towards Dovi's advances. But Turturro's tale takes such an odd left turn at the end that it undermines a lot of Fioravante's own growth within the film, which comes about when he realises just how strong an emotional connection he's forged with Avigal.

Fortunately, the film benefits greatly from the spiky chemistry between Allen and Turturro - their characters spar and tease with words and glances, as Murray talks Fioravante into a business that really doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. (It's readily acknowledged that neither of them is a natural fit for their respective roles as pimp and gigolo.) It's not quite enough to completely salvage Fading Gigolo, but the central friendship does survive the script's stranger and less truthful moments, and adds immeasurably to its charm.

Fading Gigolo so easily could be a Rollins & Joffe Production and an Allen film; it has all the sensibilities of Allen's comedies since Manhatten - the sexual confusion, the ennui, the desire for love and romance versus the ambition and instincts.

For this reviewer? I chose to see it as a grown-up romantic comedy, a comedy of errors, where Woody Allen and John Turturo's characters are both opportunistic and weary and the women are both fantasizing and projecting and being fantasized and projected. There is enough complexity and simplicity to really make this a stylish, witty, and enjoyable film.

As a jazz geek the score was superb and throughout Turturro adds little touches that make this film a quiet delight. It may not be a perfect film in that the women are too perfect and the contrasts too broad, but you would have to be mean spirited indeed not to enjoy it. It even has something to say about loneliness rather than lust being the source of sex, and that love, however fleeting, even in New York, can happen.

John Turturro did a good job both as a director and as an actor: I appreciated both his touching and amusing attitude towards the subject and his heartfelt interpretation as Fioravante. When the umpteenth love story seems to arise in a New York apartment, the delicacy of sentiments wraps every situation, with a touching and somehow magic vision of loneliness which releases a very heartwarming sensation. His character is magnetic to women, and indeed he can appeal the female public, he has that courtesy, that delicacy, that simplicity which attracts women, he looks like a man of ancient times, he is capable of looking into a woman's eye, to listen to them, to understand and appraise them without too many words, but simply standing by them. And in the end, nothing really happens, simply because nothing is needed to happen, according to a delicate and almost prudish attitude towards love which never abandons the picture till the end. Allen as a women-recruiter is funny and obsessive as only Allen can be, and the comedy on the whole owns much to him when some comic and ironic style makes us smile, and when the charm of walking along New York streets makes one look forward to being there.

Murray's dermatologist tells him she wants a threesome with her girlfriend, and Murray provides the services of his friend, middle aged Fiorovante. The cottage industry of "making lonely women happy" expands to include orthodox Jewish widow Avigal, but she is the object of desire of Neighbourhood Watch operative Dovi. Also, the way people feel towards each other can change.

Written by, directed by, and starring John Turturro as the unlikely gigolo Fiorovante, an ungenerous soul might suggest that this improbable sex-based comedy drama was just an excuse for him to film a nude scene with Sharon Stone. But I quite liked it. It is rather inconsequential, and the character Fiorovante is fairly inexpressive and therefore difficult to identify with. Also, Liev Schreiber's Dovi is quite unlikeable, and the developments involving his character aren't that convincing. But, as Murray, Woody Allen - not one of my favourite actors - delivers what is probably the best performance I have ever seen from him: gentle, wryly humorous, and spilling over with humanity. The trademark Allen tics are all there, but I liked Murray a lot. And Vanessa Paradis as Avigal was luminous.

Despite its improbability, this rather odd little drama with comedy engaged and entertained me.

Here is a film that is pleasantly unique and special. A film that is a bit different, probably my own misunderstanding, than advertised from the trailers. It's not a bad thing, the trailers brought me to the film, and the film kept my curiosity for the entire length. I liked it quite a bit unsurprising to you dear reader, as you've already seen my rating. The film was written & directed by it's main star, John Turturro, and what a grand achievement it is. Also starring in supporting roles and fantastic to say the least; Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara, Liev Schreiber, Vanessa Paradis, and New York's own, film legend Woody Allen. I found while watching this film, and though the characters played by Turturro & Allen were enjoyable to watch, I was fascinated mostly with Paradis' character and her story. I'm not Jewish myself, so I'm very naive to the culture and their religious practices, and found it a interesting insight to a, I'm sure, small portion of what it may be like to be of Jewish faith. Though, and I said I was naive to the culture, it may not be entirely true. With that said, I found a film that surprised me positively and thus was quite better than I expected.