Fading Gigolo

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.

John Turturro proofed that he can handle a light comedy as an actor as well as a director. It is easy to see how he got Woody Allen to appear in his film because the story could be by Woody Allen himself and the figure Allen plays sounds as familiar as it can be. Even the Jewish neighborhood fits very well.

The movie starts out with no waste of time as a Woody Allen-style comedy without overdoing it. Allen coaxes Turturro, who works in a flower shop to become a hired lover for rich middle aged ladies. They share the money he gets and Allen spends it for the black! family he lives with. This partnership works out pretty fast and quite successful. But then the story does a sudden turn into deeper emotions when Allen connects him with the widow Avigal who is a devoted Jewess who after two years still mourns her dead husband...

Although many scenes begin as a comedy some end on a very touching note. John Turturro knows when it is best to let the audience guess what will come next. Although a bit of a fairy tale story he never completely leaves the bounds of reality, especially in the end of the film. I left the theater with a smile. (seen at the Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival)

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.

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.

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.