Casi un gigoló

I am very disappointed by the less than intellectual viewers who claim that this film is offensive to Jews. Since when did showing the negative side of a culture become offensive? A more enlightened person would view this film as a brave satire on all fundamental religious fanatics set against a contrasting progressive society. I personally love the indirect social commentary and defiance of the female character Avigal. The film also touches the complexity of living in a society full of protocol and expectations and their impact on individual decisions.

The entire cast turned in worthy performances but the film did suffer from a very low budget, tight shooting schedule and a somewhat inexperienced Director but overall, it was a couple hours I feel were worthy of my time.

This has all the hallmarks of a Woody Allen metropolitan comedy (with Woody Allen in a lead role) - and John Turturro has written and directed it very much in the style of, say, ANNIE HALL. It's a character-driven morality play about love and sex in the city, with the feel of an upscale repertory company. And it's got Sharon Stone, still just as foxy as when she played Catherine Tramell in BASIC INSTINCT; the notion that a middle-aged man would get paid $1,000 to climb between her sheets is deliciously improbable (and very appealing to this middle-aged viewer).

As we start another summer of CGI-heavy 3D blockbusters, FADING GIGOLO is a welcome return to They-don't-make-movies-like-that-any-more. Luckily, they still do. Great acting, a crisp sophisticated script, smooth direction, a terrific score and a bevy of gorgeous women: 90 minutes of unalloyed joy. Cinema at its best.

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.

Okay, this could well have been written and directed by Woody Allen. It has the feel of a Woody Allen picture. New York, Jewish neighborhood, and John Turturro as an unlikely Romeo who will quite possibly win your heart. The longer you watch, the more charm you see in him. Woody Allen as Murray was, well, Woody Allen and if you are a fan, you'll enjoy it. I am. And I did. Perhaps the ending wasn't exactly what I would have chosen at first thought, but I as I walked out of there it seemed as if it was probably about perfect. This won't appeal to everyone, but then not everyone is a Woody Allen type movie aficionado. If you are, you'll like this one. I thoroughly enjoyed a quiet little film sans all the non-stop violence and action that leaves you wiped out and drained by the end of it. Turturro did a fine job on this film. I left the theater with a smile on my face and a feeling that this was a really good little movie.