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How entertaining? ★★★★★
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 19 December 2013
This article is a review of FADING GIGOLO.
Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2013. (For more information, click here.)
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“I’m not a beautiful man,” Fioravante (John Turturro) to Murray (Woody Allen)
FADING GIGOLO has bottled romantic, sensitive, witty yearning. What a year 2013 has been for capturing such passions. Paolo Sorrentino’s elegiac THE GREAT BEAUTY is a similar cinematic poem, albeit the mirror opposite – silent grace to FADING GIGOLO’s loquacious exploring. John Turturro not only writes and directs, he stars.
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The grasp for meaning and depth commences immediately in the Big Apple at a rare bookstore to a jazzy score. Owner Murray (an on fire Woody Allen) has to close the shop his grandfather started. At retirement age, Murray should be fine, but Fioravante (Turturro) used the income to supplement his main job at a florist (a gorgeous venue: All brass, wood, flowers – the production design is spot on, injecting a freshness into the presentation of New York). Fast friends since the latter tried to steal from the former as a kid, Murray has an indecent proposal that might provide all-round benefit. Women are drawn to the wonderfully monikered Fioravante, a modest, compassionate gentleman. All great athletes should be financially rewarded for skill believes Murray, and such an opportunity has presented itself.
Rat-a-tat rapid dialogue is Allen’s speed setting. Fioravante, and the audience equally, are convinced by his rhetoric. Murray’s Park Avenue dermatologist, Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone) is looking for a ménage à trois. Parker wants a road test first. Murray negotiates Fioravante’s rate: $1000. “I’m your ho,” the latter bewilderedly comments. 60/40 is the cheeky recompense split. At least Fioravante gets 60. And Woody Allen the motor-mouth pimp is born; a performance to rival his Alvy in ANNIE HALL. His pimp name: “Dan Bongo”.
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Are you pondering why a beautiful, successful Manhattan doctor is so desirous of physical intimacy that she would happily pay for it? FADING GIGOLO forces its quietly forlorn denizens to confront what is missing and seize it. The resultant film is romantic, sexy, affection-filled and funny. Those emotions individually have proven difficult to portray on the silver screen, let alone to pull off together. No one cast member is asked to carry the film by themselves, and each plays against type. Actors infuse their personas with an empathetic vulnerability. Characters must shake off the gilded shackles they have found themselves constrained by. The multifarious social and racial and cultural backgrounds are woven together seamlessly sans fanfare.
We have Murray’s hilariously wonderful home life to keep the chortle rate high. (Actually, Allen in any scene here is a joy.) Humour nicely balances the burgeoning emotionality, in particular the intriguing connection between Fioravante and a widow, Avigal (a hugely engaging Vanessa Paradis).
One loves this film so much.
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