CHICAGO – How do you make a Woody Allen style film? You hire Woody Allen to act in it. Writer, director and lead actor John Turturro channels the soul of Allen’s films by creating a strange and romantic scenario with different types of relationships, including one with Woody himself in “Fading Gigolo.”
Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
Turturro plays the title character named Fioravante, who hatches a plan with Woody Allen’s character to become a gigolo. The unlikeliness of the situation lends to both the strengths and weaknesses of the movie, with a touch of winking at the camera. Turturro the writer and lead actor also (naturally) casts Sharon Stone and Sofia Vergara as a couple of clients, but saves the oddest part of the story involving sect of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Within all these loops is the pace and style of a Woody Allen romantic comedy, all the way to having the master himself bless the proceedings. It’s a middle age fantasy paired with an echo effect of “Annie Hall.”
Tough economic times forced the closure of a New York City bookstore run by Murray (Woody Allen). One of his best customers and friend is Fioravante (John Turturro), a part time florist who is also barely getting by. After considering some cash-making angles, the pair decide to provide gigolo services, with Murray acting as the representative for Fioravante.
The business takes off, aided by a mysterious Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone), who provides other clients for Fioravante, including a potential three-way tryst with Selima (Sofia Vergara). But one client begins to stand out over another, a Hasidic Jewish woman named Avigal (Vanessa Paradis), who has lost her husband, yet is not ready to marry inside the sect again. She begins to use the gigolo as a buffer, which irritates her potential Hasidic suitor, Dovi (Liev Schreiber), and involves Murray with some potential complications.
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[3] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/fading-gigolo
[4] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/hollywoodchicagodotcom-content
[5] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/john-turturro
[6] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/liev-schreiber
[7] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/millennium-entertainment
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[10] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/sharon-stone
[11] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/sofia-vergara
[12] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/vanessa-paradis
[13] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/woody-allen
[14] http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/reviews/23935/warm-fading-gigolo-has-odd-romance-woody-allen