Home   >   Entertainment   >   Film   >   Dan Walker on Film   >   DVD Review: “Fading Gigolo” Written and Directed by John Turturro

DVD Review: “Fading Gigolo” Written and Directed by John Turturro

By on September 27, 2014

Cast:

John Turturro (“Miller’s Crossing”, “Do the Right Thing”, “Barton Fink”)

Woody Allen (Most of his own movies)

Vanessa Paradis (This is the first movie I’ve seen her in)

Liev Shcreiber (“Big Night”, “Kate & Leopold”, “Defiance”)

Running Time:  98 Minutes

___________________________________________________________________________

Fading Gigolo posterBeing a fan of John Turturro’s acting and Woody Allen’s everything, I looked forward to watching “Fading Gigolo.”  The title and trailers made me to believe it was a fun and funny movie.  It’s neither.  I’m not sure my take on the film would be different if I didn’t go into it with expectations.

Fading Gigolo Turturro

Turturro plays Fioravante (below right), who lives a hand-to-mouth existence working part time jobs at a florist and an antique book store, the latter of which is owned by Murray (Allen) and about to close because of the lack of interest in rare books.  Concerned for both their financial well-beings, Murray tells Fioravante that his super-wealthy Manhattan dermatologist, Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone) mentioned to him that she wanted to pay a man to have a ménage à trois with her and her also absurdly rich friend Selima (Sophia Vergera) and wanted to know if Murray knew anyone who might do it.   Murray tells Fioravante that both women are beautiful and Fioravante was the first person he thought of as a candidate for the three-way.  Fioravante balks at the idea as ridiculous but Murray cites his financial condition and the reasons, despite not being young or classically handsome, he would be perfect for it.   Murray wants a cut of the action, hence his vested interest in the arrangement.  Fiorvante meets with Dr. Parker and Selima individually several times before the three of them get together.  In between, he also meets with other women.  Parker uses the trysts to vent her resentment toward her husband.

Fading Gigolo Paradis and TurturroThe other part of the story involves the widowed, lonely, and Jewish (her husband was a rabbi) Avigal (Vanessa Paradis, left with Turturro).  Knowing how lonely Avigal is, Murray refers her to the services of Fioravante, and the two unexpectedly fall in love.  The complication is that Dovi (Liev Schreiber, below right), a Hasidic Jew who is a watch officer in their Williamsburg (Brooklyn) neighborhood, has long been in love with Avigal.  Knowing there’s a connection between Murray, Fioravante, and Avigal, the suspicious Dovi follows Murray to try to figure it out, forcibly bringing Murray to a group of rabbis for interrogation.

Fading Gigolo SchreiberSeveral things occurred to me as I watched the film:   John Turturro is best when he plays characters with strong personalities.   In “Fading Gigolo”, it’s as though he wants to portray a film noir-esque monotonic, emotionless lead, which he doesn’t carry off well.  Fioravante just comes across as tired and beaten.  He absorbs the energy of the characters around him without returning it.  It may be that Turturro lacks the physical presence to come across well as a stoic, serious character.   Fioravante himself repeatedly comments that he doesn’t consider himself good-looking.  The other thing that occurred to me is that Turturro, Allen, and Stone are getting older and you really feel it.

Fading Gigolo Stone and VergaraBesides the possibility the story was inspired by the fact Turturro fantasized about being a gigolo himself, I can’t help but think Turturro wanted to get on film suggestive and sexual scenes of himself with Stone and Vergara (left).  Those scenes are forced and unconvincing.  Besides, considering how beautiful and wealthy Dr. Parker and Selima are, I can’t imagine they’d have to pay anyone for sex, especially someone as old or older than they are.  Schreiber does a typically good job with his character and Paradis is convincing as Avigal.  Her best scene might be when she shows Fioravante how to debone a fish when he has her over for dinner.  Except for Allen (because I know his appearances on screen are numbered), only the performances of Schreiber and Paradis ring true.  The abduction and interrogation scenes don’t make sense.  Why wouldn’t the abduction be illegal?  Do the rabbis really have that much power over people’s personal lives, including someone that is not a practicing Jew?  A similar scene in a comedic setting could work well.  Here it tested my ability to suspend disbelief.  Turturro including the Jewish part of the story reminds me of how Spike Lee focused on Italian-Americans in 1989’s “Do the Right Thing”,  1991’s “Jungle Fever” ─ both of which starred Turturro ─ and 1999’s “Summer of Sam.”

Fading Gigolo Allen and kidsIt’s unique seeing Allen in a movie he doesn’t direct. His presence in “Fading Gigolo” is welcome and he’s still able to inject his own brand of energy into the film.  Murray’s personal/home situation in the film is unclear.  He lives with a younger black woman and her children (left, with Allen) but their relationship is nebulous.   It has little to do with the story but it’s still confusing.

Fading Gigolo Turturro and AllenBesides Allen’s presence, where he basically plays the film’s Jiminy Cricket, “Fading Gigolo” has touches of an Allen film.  It’s set in New York in a colorful autumn, its focuses on relationships, and it uses music like Allen does, especially the jazz during the opening and ending credits.   In the same way it seemed like Scorsese held DeNiro’s hand with 1993’s “A Bronx Tale”, I got the feeling Allen offered pointers to director Turturro during the making of this film.  The friend I watched it with, another fan of Turturro and especially Allen’s (left, off camera), stopped watching before the halfway point.  Ultimately, I didn’t find the story engaging or believable nor did I find most of the performances genuine or convincing.

To redeem Turturro in my mind, I watched “Barton Fink.”  Viewings of “Miller’s Crossing” and “The Big Lebowski” are upcoming.  This is the time of year I try to watch most of the Woody Allen movies in my collection, so his participation in this film is as good as forgotten.

DPW

September 25, 2014

About Dan Walker

As part of an Air Force family, I went to elementary school in Great Falls, MT, junior high in Cheyenne, WY and high school and college in the San Francisco Bay Area, graduating from San Francisco State University with a degree in business. I was fortunate to have worked for great companies in Silicon Valley (Oracle Corp) and Hollywood (Miramax Films). I also lived and worked (primarily in financial services, which has no great companies) for eight years in Manhattan, New York City. I now reside in New York's beautiful Hudson Valley.

4 comments on “DVD Review: “Fading Gigolo” Written and Directed by John Turturro”

  1. John on said:

    The way you describe this film – even though not in a four star, positive way – oddly makes me want to see it as it sounds like it would appeal to the quirky side of my personality. Speaking of quirky – have you had the opportunity to see Liev Shcreiber in The Daytrippers?

    Fading Gigolo,
    John

    Reply ↓
    • DPW on said:

      To read my review and still be interested in seeing “Fading Gigolo” shows just how open-minded you are, John. I try to be objective when I describe a movie’s negative aspects but I reviewed this movie like I was victimized by it. I’d be curious to hear what you think of it.

      I just put “The Daytrippers” on my Netflix queue on your recommendation for a quirky movie with Liev Schreiber. Speaking of quirky, I just watched Mike Judge’s 2006 “Idiocracy.” I’d heard it was worth watching but it wasn’t recommended strongly. The premise is a current-day guy in the Army named Joe who isn’t smart or hard-working takes part in an experiment where he’s put to sleep for a year. Things go wrong and he wakes up 500 years in the future to find he is the smartest person on Earth. Because people are just that dumb and inarticulate in the future, they make fun of the way Joe speaks. The reason things get to be that way is intelligent couples over-plan and hold off having families to the point they don’t have kids. Meanwhile, irresponsible and low-I.Q. people have kids without restraint and their offspring perpetuate the same traits until they take over the world. It isn’t necessarily well-executed but the point isn’t that far-fetched and the premise is the saving grace of the movie.

      The reason the movie struck a chord with me is I see people like the characters Judge satirizes here in the country when I’m out locally. I could relate to Joe’s character. I have to drive at least 30 miles in any direction to be confident of finding a decent conversation. There are good people here but a surprising number have no interest in making themselves or their children smarter or broadening their perspective, and that’s me being nice. You could never tell it was the year 2014 in talking to them. I know most of TV and the Internet isn’t tailored for MENSA members but there’s no excuse now to be that brain-lazy, backward, and closed-minded.

      Mike Judge created (and did voices for) Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill, both of which feature characters that aren’t smart. You have to be smart to do dumb characters as well as he does. His 1999 film “Office Space”, which has a huge following, would probably be considered his opus. Since you like quirky movies, I’d recommend “Office Space”, assuming you haven’t seen it.

      Thanks for your comments.

      Reply ↓
  2. Jeremy on said:

    I have to agree with John, I will probably give it a look. Great Review Dan!

    Reply ↓
  3. DanB on said:

    I tried to watch but the energy was flat and I just didn’t find any of the characters believable.

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

HTML tags are not allowed.