Looks like, sounds like and feels like a Woody Allen movie. It's all here: angst, humour, romance, drama, a bit of craziness and, of course, some brilliant one-liners. But it isn't a Woody movie; he's simply one of ther stars. The writer/director is John Turturro, and a great job he does, balancing the various elements and coming up with a fine resolution, then ending with a neat coda. Great stuff and it is to be hoped he will do it again.
It seems amusing to me that films like Fading Gigolo still seem to get made, not only do they pretend to be risque when really are just simplistically pleasant but they also avoid any kind of point or meaning. Sure they have a few famous cast members and a few memorable one liners about selling your body for money but in the end this is mindless garbage wrapped up in a nice little bow and presented to the paying public as if it were Michelangelo's David.
Fading Gigolo follows Fioravante (John Turturro), a man in his later years who decides as a way to help his friend Murray (Woody Allen) with his money woes that he will become a gigolo. This decision finds the two wrapped up in a strange business as Murray takes on the role of his manager as Fioravante tries to become the next Don Juan.
If that description made a lick of sense to you beyond the fact that it was readable then I am sure you may enjoy Fading Gigolo but for those of us here on planet earth who are stuck with our logic centres we must endure a film so beyond sense its hard to imagine how Turturro wrote it without crying inside. The sentiment of doing something for your friend is all well and good but hooking for the sake of him, that's probably where most normal people draw the line. The whole premise makes Murray unlikable from the start and while Allen is a decent rambler and is given some witty moments the whole story revolves around us pitying him and not for one second can you.
Turturro (who also wrote and directed) thinks he is having fun with the conventional idea of a modern comedy and in a way he is, he has made a comedy so utterly mind boggling that it passes through the realms of surreal right into spoof and while I can get behind a good spoof movie something tells me this film isn’t quite trying to be the next Naked Gun.