The Life (2004)

Simply Perfect

Excellent adaptation.

Absolutely brilliant

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

Rather than giving this movie a ten, I've got to give it a twenty in the amount of showers you will feel like taking after watching it. There is something deeply disturbing not about the movie in particular, but about the writer behind it - and that my friend is how you know it is a really bad movie. Issues? Well, someone involved in making this movie hates men and that suspense at least makes the plot interesting. Normally, when a movie has Denise Richards in it, you want to watch it for the eye candy alone. But, while the woman doesn't take off any of her clothes in this movie, she has already way over exposed all her blemishes and birthmarks in the movie Wild Things. I really hate criticizing Denise because of the small chance in hell that she and I might one day hit it off. And even the thought of her taking off her clothes and acting like a prostitute offends something in me as I only want to perceive her as one of those pure virgin angels who used to be a cheerleader for my high school. But enough about my psychotic notions and back to the psychotic movie itself. For an old lady, Daryl Hannah humps a couch good. Strangely, I don't have any problems viewing her as a naked prostitute though she never really strips. The woman is so old she is actually older than myself while I am older than dirt. So, she must be taking really good care of herself.

The producers of this film seem not to have decided what they really wanted to do - a documentary? some social comment about prostitution? a drama about how a young student is almost driven into prostitution? a soft porn movie? The result is a mix of all those, without really being any of them. Denise Richards and Daryl Hannah seem very little at ease with their very thin acts inter-threaded with what seem to be interviews with real practicants of the older profession and porn actors and directors. The social comment is not consequent, sometimes forgiving, sometimes harsh, and in any case it does not say anything new about the subject that was or is said in any TV documentary. It is hard to say why they did this film, and who would be really interested in it.

I saw this movie on cable. I'm glad I didn't pay to rent it. Years ago I saw the Teresa Russell version titled "Whore" and I found it equally dry and disconnected. But I was at least compelled to watch that version with interest due to the slightly better quality of the production. This time around, despite the appeal of Denise Richards, I found it to be choppy and tedious. The constant "code switching" -- between the gritty documentary style and the Hollywood stars in fabricated studio sets -- really pollutes the vision of what this film is trying to achieve, I think. Honestly, the best thing this movie has going for it is the provocative poster featuring a woman shaving herself. (Furthermore, I can't get over the fact that Daryl Hannah continues to get work in the film industry, but that's just me.)In closing, I wish to make an important point regarding the previous reviewer's comments. With all due respect to lizardiharp's submission above, the Spanish phrase 'Yo Puta' does not translate to 'The Life.' 'La Vida' means 'The Life.' 'Yo Puta' means, appropriately, 'I am a whore.'

I saw this on Showtime, just before the 147th showing of Spidergirl.This gives you an idea of what we're talking about here. T&A between interviews of Ho's Pimps and Gigolos from the legal trade.OK in the beginning they all talk like it's their choice and what they want. By the end they're whining about wanting to get out and have a normal family with kids and all that. Right down to the interview with the faceless Russian mobster talking about force, violence and keeping the passports to keep the girls working for them. All pure stereotype and nothing we haven't seen better before by real documentaries. Oh except they have flashy sexy sets from inside tacky euro-trash whorehouses complete with the red satin and mirrors.Denise Richards and Darryl Hannah provide the titillation to keep the viewer interested with one of those horribly lame plots like you get in soft core porn like the Red Shoe Diaries.A long time ago Umberto Eco wrote an essay on how to tell if you're watching a porno film. If the drive to the house takes way too long as a setup ... ie. if the fluff is just to fill time then that's what you got.Not the worst ... by far ... of porn producers trying to justify themselves.Personally Spiderbabe was much better.