Le prix de l'innocence

I thought I'd better offer an honest opinion to balance out the high ratings apparently conferred by writer/director/star Pau Maso's family and friends. This film is an amateurish, muddled mess.

It's framed as a therapy session for gay hustler Aleksandr, who tells his story in a series of flashbacks. This setup is completely unnecessary, and detracts substantially from the film by repeatedly killing the momentum. The therapist, "Dr. Mary", shows no compassion at all for her patient; she sounds like she's reading her lines off a Xeroxed sheet. She asks questions that I hope no professional therapist would ask, and says things that I hope no professional therapist would say (telling an extremely distressed guy he's "strange" won't win any awards for bedside manner).

Aleksandr, who seems to have developed his Russian accent by studying Mr. Chekov in the 1960s Star Trek series, makes one incredibly bad decision after another, to the extent that we feel even less sympathy for him than his therapist does. Suffering one traumatic experience after another, he continues to let bad things happen to him with no resistance offered or judgment exercised whatsoever. After the THIRD TIME a trick hands you a glass of mysterious liquid and says, "Drink it," you either turn and run away or you give up your right to feel you've been taken advantage of.

Tom, the character who seems to be Aleksandr's greatest potential ally, is confusing at best. His dialogue is written as if he's genuinely concerned, but the actor's delivery is so flat - a perpetual cheeriness that sounds like he's speed-dating - we aren't sure if he truly wants to help Aleksandr, or is just looking for a quick and easy hookup.

And then there's the "twist" near the end - not really a plot twist at all, just a ridiculously improbable happenstance. Based on everything we've learned so far, there's no reason to believe this particular incident would be so much as a blip on the radar, compared with a dozen or so other traumatic experiences little Alek has been through. Apparently, this is the one that lands him in therapy - although how and why are never explained.

Mr. Maso isn't a bad looking guy. Too bad he can't write, direct, or act.

Terrible, awful movie starring Pau Masó as Aleksandr, a character I couldn't care less for. Apparently, I was supposed to feel sorry for, but I soon didn't. Poor, poor Aleksandr, who had all these terrible things happen to him, abandonment, dead mother, and more. But any sympathy I had for him was soon lost. I got so tired of that pathetic expression on his face through the entire movie I wanted to scream!

Yeah, yeah, prostitution is bad, and it leads to all sex-workers wanting to kill themselves. Whatever. Except I think Dan Savage for one would disagree.

Poor rambling script. Poor acting. Annoying "hero" who cried and threw up so many times I wanted to scream. Mediocre acting. I don't even think the main actor's accent was real. Poor filming. Poor sound. Only Josh Berresford as Keith (the client with a heart of silver, if not gold) was really any good and even his part was cliché—he had to struggle to get anything decent out of the part he was given. The therapist was decent but we don't even know how our guy got there. Keith Dougherty was absolutely terrible—and his part worse as he made no sense. Was he a nice guy or a jerk? Who knows? Did even the writer?

The twist ending was ridiculous. And the sudden turn around after that in about two minutes totally unbelievable.

I also highly suspect the couple good reviews for this movie. I'm not saying they're fake, but I wouldn't be surprised. They praised a bad film so highly, I can't help but be suspect. Brilliant? Not in any way. What a total waste of my time! I'm downright angry. And while one reviewer's thought that he wished the protagonist would just kill himself seems harsh? Well.... I sure stopped caring about the "hero." So hmmmmm.....

Poor script, poor cinematography, poor direction, poor acting (though not sure if it's the actor's fault. Just a titlilating tale of one dimensional characters.

Aleksandr was dealt a bad deal in life. He lost the only family he had and he'd undocumented. Two things that make a bad combo. Yes, lonely undocumented people in a city can fall into things they don't want.

Aleksandr is trying to figure out who he is and what he wants. He hooks up with a guy, tells him it's his first time, and the assumption is that he's a prostitute. How does that make sense? Another guy hands him money after being together and says he's so good that he must be a professional and throws money at him. There are plenty of people who are good at it who have never been paid for it. It's just such a weird thing.

Aleksandr also has a penchant for completely ruining relationships but they always come back and want to be his friend. They say he's a nice guy but his actions don't convey it.

Wherever he goes people seem to know he's a rent boy even when he looks sullen and doesn't so much as glance their way.

This could have been a decent movie but it wasn't. There are much better movies of a similar vein. Skip this one.

This is a really strange, at times puzzling movie about the lower depths of the New York gay club scene filled with enough internalized homophobia to sink the Good Ship Lollipop, as well as the Titanic. A lot of things in it make little sense, and I think that Pau Maso really overestimated his skill and even talent trying to do everything on it-act, write, direct, etc.

But ultimately I found it appealing and even satisfying-Aleksandre hits pure rock bottomn and has to either come up or die. And he does come up, and survives.

I have always said, after many years of living in NY, that if you want to destroy yourself, there is a whole army of people in New York who will be more than happy to help you do it; then once they have pushed you to your own self destruction, they will just go on to the next sucker.

This movie proves it.

Perry Brass.