Rimini

This movie is a comedy with some drama in it. Overall the cinematography is nice. Acting is great. Our main character Richie is very well-written and is very fun to watch. The movie could have been shorter. It could be easily 90 minutes. Because sometimes the movie repeats itself. But it is worth watching and it is very interesting at some points.

This movie follows the has-been crooner Richie Bravo. Still a formidable specimen of a human being, he has sunk low. He sings at near-empty venues, has abandoned his child and the mother of the child in the past, has no money and hustles on the lowest level. Richie is selling himself out as an aging dream-boat to lonely women seeking sexual encounters. He pimps out his own apartment and he drinks constantly. He lies and cheats. The film follows him around in amazing shots of stunning beauty. The contents is sometimes bordering on the unbearable; it can get very explicit. A drunken night, depicted in all it length, is a descent into lowest misery (but no violence). The camera-work is incredible. Strange enough, as the film staggers on, Richie Bravo, the unlikely hero, starts to grow on the audience. He becomes lovable. There is dignity in being a worst-case scenario train-wreck. A study in human humility. The film is definitely an experience; a very strange one.

I wanted to see this film, as I had fond memories of Rimini when I was a child Boy, were they ruined ! What a bleak but haunting film.....it left me quite disturbed Richie Bravo an aging crooner, popular with ladies of a certain age definitely had a reminiscent charm of typical resort singers abroad and on cruise ships.....schmoozing their way into their fantasies.

Richie sells his favours to certain fans, and I have to say, and I am not a prude, I found the explicit sex scenes with these elderly ladies excruciatingly sordid.

As the films descends into lowliness, so does the weather, which I found a great touch to the film The story line includes Richie's quest to reconcile himself with his abandoned daughter, and the subsequent conclusion to this story line is very original and funny All in all, Micheal Thomas plays low life, but kindly Richie Bravo to a decadent T, an authentic performance I definitely won't be visiting Rimini in the winter.

But is a tad sad. Imagine if 'Leaving Las Vegas' had a baby with 'The Wrestler' that grew up and flamed out as an Austrian Adam Sandler sans the comdey or guitar - too much? It is a lot. But likeable. What works are the performances, script, and crazy kudos to the long shots with few edits - that's what made this rather glum cinematic wanderer work for me. That said! The main character is a rascally ne'er-do-well for the ages and maybe the film is 14% too long. And his family matters leave some guesswork, but maybe that's the point? Lone wolf ages out of talent and beauty to become a shell of his former self, and maybe that's life, baby?