Fading Gigolo (2014)

Simply Perfect

hyped garbage

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I never thought I'd see the day where Woody Allen would play a pimp who had a male prostitute played by John Turturro. Fortunately for everyone, that day has finally come, and I'm proud to say that I'm a big fan of the film 'Fading Gigolo'.We all know who Woody Allen is and most of us know John Turturro from a variety of acting roles he has done over the past couple of decades including Jesus Quintana ('The Big Lebowski'), Pete ('O Brother Where Art Thou'), Knish ('Rounders'), and of course Barton Fink. I could keep going, but you get the picture.In addition to these iconic roles, did you know that Mr. Turturro was a writer and director too? Well he certainly is, and with 'Fading Gigolo' you might just become a fan of him behind the camera. Turturro worked very closely with Allen on the script for 'Fading Gigolo' and it completely shows. If Allen were to pass away in the near future, Turturro could pick up right where Allen left off. The camera angles, the use of classical music, the writing, the dialogue, and comedy are all very Woody Allen- centric, but Turturro adds in a very nice and warm glow to the whole story. His magnetism and charm are powerful while Allen keeps bringing his unique brand of witty humor to every scene.Turturro plays Fioravante, a middle aged man who is a man of many talents, but lives alone. He seems like an excellent guy but is longing for someone to love. He works at an old book store run by Murray (Allen), and the two become close friends. It's never really revealed why Murray lives with an African American woman with four kids, but it makes for a great and endearing side story that is often comical. Looking to make more money, Murray sees that Fioravante has a way with women, as if they are drawn to him and his smile. They come up with a business to become pimp and prostitute. The scene where the two are trying to think of their "stage names" is hysterical. Let's just say that I'm going to name my first born Bookmaster Moe.One of Fioravante's first clients is a very wealthy, married woman named Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone), whose husband is never there and never pays any attention to her. Enter Fioravante, who knows how to treat a classy lady, but is still playfully shy and sweet. Word gets around the small community in New York, and Fioravante and Murray's new business takes off. Across town in a hasidic Jewish community, a woman named Avigal (Vanessa Paradis) is raising her kids alone, due to the death of her husband and is desperately wanting to re-connect with someone, but due to her strict religion, she cannot.The local security officer of the neighborhood, Dovi (Liev Schreiber with curls and all), has taken a strong liking to Avigal and has noticed that Murray has been to her house and that she has left her neighborhood to go places, which is out of the ordinary. Needless to say, he thinks something is fishy. It's with Fioravante and Avigal's sessions where the true nature of the movie comes out, which is learning to love again later in life and wearing your heart on your shoulder. And you don't get pleasure from just the physical aspect of love, but by being there and listening to one another. It might seem a little corny in a few places, but that taste never lasts long enough for it to stick around.The chemistry between Allen and Turturro is amazing, and you can tell that they are indeed friends on screen as well as off screen. And by the end of the film, you are ready to go on more fun adventures with these two guys. Turturro, as always, turns in a top notch performance as does Sharon Stone and a great cameo by the beautiful Sofia Vergara who gets into a couple of compromising positions. And Paradis shines throughout as a woman who is wanting to find love once again, while Schreiber is great as a hasidic Jewish cop. With the excellent classical score, the beauty of New York, a wonderful cast and crew, and hilarious dialogue, 'Fading Gigolo' is one charming and cute movie you don't want to miss.

If you have seen trailers or advertising for this film, they may have almost exclusively focused on Woody Allen just like it was for me. However, the main player behind "Fading Gigolo" ("Suddenly Gigolo") is John Turturro. He directed it, he wrote it and he plays the central character Fioravante. It sure takes a lot of guts to write a character described by women as a top stud between the sheets and then cast yourself for that role. I knew him mostly from his performance on the TV show "Monk", which brought him an Emmy as the title character's brother. Of course he was also in "Barton Fink" and many more. Apart from Allen and Turturro, Vanessa Paradis (mostly known for her longtime relationship with Johnny Depp) plays the female main role. Supporting players are Sofia Vergara ("Modern Family"), Liev Schreiber ("Ray Donovan") and Sharon Stone ("Casino"), the two ladies being actually typecast for roles that do not look too different than some of their work in the past.The best part of the film was probably Allen playing a pimp. He brought the comedic highlights of the movie while Paradis was responsible for the dramatic highlights. Turturro I am not so sure what to think of his performance. I felt it was a bit empty and for the most of the film, he was just there and I wasn't really impacted by his actions. Just like he directed it, I felt all the interesting things in this film had not too much to do with him. If you are nice, you could say, he was quietly convincing. Anyway back to Allen, if some more people had actually seen this film, he may have even been in consideration for a Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars. But he doesn't care anyway, so it's fine I guess. There was one scene where his character makes a quote about competition, which was pretty funny given Allen's long history of absence at award ceremonies.One of the most interesting things here is how all the women admired the name Fioravante as he must be some great Italian lover and the one he actually likes doesn't even know his name. The ending I am not sure what to think of or if I liked it. Obviously, Paradis' character only saw him as a helper to her grief and all of a sudden, she was ready to marry Schreiber's character? It came all out of nowhere and felt pretty weird to me. I don't need a happy end, but if it is unhappy, it has to be at least somewhat credible and I did not think it was. At least they avoided the usual drama when she finds out what he actually does. And the very final scene, with the other lady was pretty insignificant too. It felt only included to make the viewer leave the theater with a smile, but it did not fit at all in relation to everything what happened before. Paradis and Turturro seemed to have good chemistry, so I would have preferred a happy ending in this case I think.One real highlight where the dialogs between Fioravante and his pimp. Well, actually it was mostly the pimp talking all the time. I also liked the music (including Dean Martin's "Sway"), but as a whole I would really only recommend this one to Woody Allen completionists.

Fading Gigolo actually has much more about Hasidic Jews than I expected, and a touching core plot about a widow's emotional awakening thanks to the not always being in the stuffy world of Hasidics. But when it's the Woodman and Turturro or most anyone else on screen like his adopted black kids (lol) - and of course there's the whole running gag of beautiful women like Sharon Stone and Sofia Vegara paying to have sex, including a three way, with Vito from Do the Right thing as a middle aged man - it's exceedingly amiable.Occasionally it's very funny (and I was chuckling and or tittering through much) and in a couple of scenes Allen shows he's a good actor (which, you know, you always expect him to be wisecracking woody and he is but a couple of times he shows that he can reveal restraint, thinking on his feet, other things), but watch him in certain scenes, like when he comes to a realization with a woman character. His mind is working as is his emotions, and it clicks in a way we haven't seen with him in... Deconstructing Harry maybe? It's a good little New York City movie that is better than it has any right to be based on its silly but intrinsically amusing premise, and for a fair chunk of the run time it does take seriously the constructive world of Hasidics in Brooklyn and what happens when Liev Schreiber gets jealous and has to face his own complex emotions.

John Turturro steps behind the camera, casting himself as a male prostitute and Woody Allen as his pimp. "Fading Gigolo" also looks at the mores of New York's Hasidic community (some of which sound like ideas from the Taliban). Allen's character is his usual self, while Turturro's clients - played by Sharon Stone and Sofía Vergara - remind one of Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate".The main thing that I took from this movie is that Woody Allen does best when he simply tries to be funny. His movies got boring when he started focusing on neurotic rich people (don't even get me started on the god-awful "Everyone Says I Love You"). Although "Fading Gigolo" depicts such people, it's more of a satirical portrayal. Also, Allen does well in movies directed by other people: there's this one plus "What's New, Pussycat?", "Casino Royale", "The Front" and "Company Man". You'll like this one.I'd like to see Woody Allen make a horror flick. He would play a nebbish fleeing zombies (likely played by scream queens Adrienne Barbeau, Linnea Quigley, Jamie Lee Curtis, etc), and telling people that the zombies aren't as scary as producers who think that commercials qualify as art.