Love the Hard Way

I don't understand why this movie has been so reviled by critics and IMDb users. The obsession and descent into darkness of the nice girl Claire, depicted by Charlotte Ayanna without any annoying mannerisms, are so realistic they made me ache. Stories like hers are very common, although not everybody goes to such extremes. Adrien Brody is an excellent actor and gives an interesting performance, but I find him miscast: he doesn't really exude a life of crime out of every pore. The script doesn't actually explain how Jack Grace became the way he is. The sketchy details about his background he provides Claire could be a figment of his overactive imagination. So all we can do is watch Claire sink lower and lower, but eventually redeem herself. And is Jack 'cured' after two year in jail and a close call? Probably not.

Absorbing enough drama of doomed love that fails to provides its two protagonists with any kind of emotional consistency, and too often leaves us wondering just why they do the things they do. Brody plays a small-time hustler who's secretly writing a novel in a storage container while Ayanna is the straight-A biology student who falls under his improbable spell. A better writer might have had us believing, but not writer/director Peter Sehr.

Wow I cannot believe there is only one other comment for this movie. I have to agree about this movie staying with you. For almost two hours I was completely involved with two people I will never really know, yet for some reason it has changed me in some strange way. I watched the movie and like the others in the theater had the same rollercoster ride of feelings, but it was not until after I left the theater that I had an abundance of emotions come over me. The acting was amazing all the way around, story was an A+. I work hard for the money I make and for the high price I paid for admission, it was all worth it for this great creative process! I suggest that everyone support their local small theater when this film comes around to your town!!

This is a must for every Adrien Brody fan out there. Despite the dismal reviews this little known movie received, this movie is a true gem. Set in New York, Adrien plays Jack, a streetsmart con man who with his partner,Charlie, played by John Seda, rip off foreign businessman. Their actress friends pretend to be hookers, and seduce the businessmen, then Jack and Charlie break in dressed as policemen and make a fake arrest. In private, Jack is hard at work writing a novel, and frequently visits a run down movie theater where he meets Claire, played by Charlotte Ayanna. Claire is a "good girl" graduate student who eagerly ignores warnings not to date Jack. Jack is drawn to her innocence, while she is drawn to his charms and cleverness. Their first date begins with a pleasent little dinner and ends with a night of steamy sex in Jack's bed. From here the relationship becomes doomed. As the police slowly close in on Jack and Charlie, Jack does everything possible to end the relationship with Claire, it is at this point that they both begin to self-distruct. Their self-distruction leads them down a path that becomes a serious dose of reality for Claire and Jack. It's a story of love, jealousy, sex, betrayal, crime, suicide, it's a realistic love story and a lesson of everything that should not happen in a relationship.

Adrien Brody is outstanding in this one, and Charlotte Ayanna is also good. This is truely one of Adrien's best.

This well-acted, twisted, bittersweet story was a pleasant surprise. After admiring Adrien Brody's haunted portrayal of the pianist trapped in Nazi Germany, I wondered if he could really be that good of an actor, maybe it was just the genius of Polanski's direction. This role proved his talent is real for me. It is a contemporary tale about a hustler who secretly longs to be an author who becomes attracted to a comely coed who is studying to become a scientist. They couldn't be more different, yet they form a connection that changes their lives forever. The actress who plays Claire has beautiful sky-blue eyes and a nubile body as brilliant as her mind. Jack is not prepared for a woman like her. His friends are his partners in crime but he is the boss, he has all the answers, until he meets his match in a vice detective played by the always great Pam Grier. What will the future hold for him? Rent this movie and see. You won't be sorry.