The Center of the World (2001)

Purely Joyful Movie!

How sad is this?

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Richard Longman (Peter Sarsgaard) is a dot com meteor on the rise. He's alone and depressed. He talks to Florence (Molly Parker) at his coffee place who turns out to be a stripper. He offers her $10k to spend three days in Las Vegas with him. He lays out the terms where they spend four hours each night but with limitation. He starts falling for her. Her local friend Jerri (Carla Gugino) is a card dealer.This could have been a simple two person erotic play following in the footsteps of "Last Tango in Paris". Sarsgaard and Parker are very capable actors. It wouldn't be breaking any new grounds but it would still be interesting to see the actors try their best. Sarsgaard definitely has the sadness but he doesn't strike me as a nerd who needs to pay for a girl. That guy is too beautiful to not have a dozen girls chasing after him. Director Wayne Wang is unable to deliver anything visually compelling other than some memorable erotica. The mixing of lower grade indie cinematography is distracting. In the end, this doesn't really get there.

Two people lost in the world somehow find each other.He is a nerdy, depressed Mr. Nice Guy, willing to pay to get close to people. She is a stripper who works out her anger as a drummer in her off-hours. When she tells him she won't let him get close, he takes it as a challenge.He wants to believe she's fundamentally normal, just great in bed. What she sees is a guy she can squeeze for money. Not understanding, or caring, what she's doing, he's willing to throw everything away for her. When she rejects his love, he's not such a nice guy after all. Yet they both keep going back for more.There is a tremendous amount of sex in this sordid Vegas-based movie and I sense it was used to pad a flimsy story. This film takes itself very seriously, but like time spent in Sin City, it doesn't amount to much.

This movie is absurd, vague, slow, abrupt and incomplete. But isn't that how life is? I wont take any sides but one thing is certain that the director has been able to keep it as close to life as any of our lives could be. This movie is not about unreal heroes, super-hot babes & witty dialogs. It has a millionaire loser for a hero and a shy hooker for a heroine, and their love which is not your run of the mill happy ending love story but love which is free from any bias and desires of the flesh. Picture this - A really hot woman, dressed in exotic lingerie acting all horny in front of you, but you don't feel a thing. You don't feel a thing because you want her to undress her heart,her mind,her soul and not her body which you know could be bought by money. The brilliance of this movie lies in the fact that despite he is given what he wanted( at least what he bargained for), he still feels incomplete and we as viewers experience this by ourselves,and that goes for one scene and the actors life as a whole too. While she never lets her guard open(though baring all for him) but finds herself helpless in the face of the goodness and respect which she perhaps never experienced before. She denies its love because she doesn't want to complicate things or probably also realizes that their love is not to be, but the matters have complicated already. A poignant tale of absurd, incomplete love and the absurd, incomplete life of our internet world.* Don't watch it for the sleaze, you might end up erecting your sensitive side instead.

Gee whiz, didn't realize I was setting out to watch a soft core porn movie! Could have been a very interesting story. Unfortunately, the main characters were devoid of emotional depth and lacked any interpersonal chemistry. In the end the story had nothing to do with love or even attraction, but just the power (and violence) that some people exert over each other. Thought the ending was perfect given the superficiality of the characters. Gave this 2 out of 10.