Fading Gigolo Reviews

In Fading Gigolo, his fifth directorial effort, respected actor John Turturro fashions a gentle mix of comedy and drama that is in large part a Woody Allen tribute. As a bonus, he had the luck and smarts to actually get Woody to co-star with him in it.   Turturro plays Fioravante, a middle-aged guy who works part-time for Murray (Allen), the owner of a rare-books store. When the business goes belly up, both men start looking for a new source of income. Murray soon tells Fioravante that, during a recent visit to his dermatologist (Sharon Stone), he learned that she and her girlfriend (Sofia Vergara) wanted to have a threesome with a man. Sensing an economic opportunity, and thinking Fioravante might be up to the task, he said that he did in fact know an in-demand gigolo.   After some cajoling (and faced with some grim financial realities), Fioravante agrees to let his old boss act as his pimp. Word of mouth spreads, and the pair realize they have a new business on their hands. However, things get complicated when Murray convinces sheltered Hasidic widow Avigal (Vanessa Paradis) to try their services. She and Fioravante donít have sex, but develop a deep love for one another.   If nothing else, Turturro deserves credit as a writer and director for creating a sex comedy that also happens to be a poignant romantic drama. The first half-hour is a funnier Woody Allen film than anything Allen has made in the last two decades. Just watching the quintessential New Yorker stroll through Brooklyn with his characterís racially mixed family gives the movie a sense of authenticity -- it forces Allen to appear more modern than he has allowed himself in recent years. Turturro has also written Allen a number of funny scenes -- highlighted by the conversation in which they each decide upon the pseudonyms they are going to use while conducting business with clients -- and one-liners that play to his co-starís strengths.   The middle third of the movie is a sensitive, delicately observed romantic drama as Fioravante and Avigal get to know each other. This section of the picture is lovely; Turturro, a superb actor in his own right, obviously likes other performers, and allows Paradis and himself a number of lengthy shots that show how their attraction is growing stronger in subtle increments.   Just as you begin to fear that the film has abandoned the laughs altogether, Murray returns with a vengeance in the final third, which also involves Liev Schreiber as a Hasidic community-watch leader named Dovi who has been in love with Avigal his whole life. In a desperate bid to figure out whatís going on, Dovi orchestrates Murrayís kidnapping, which begins with one of the funniest abductions youíre likely to see anytime soon. Turturro deftly weaves the comedy and drama together in a climax that is as humorous as it is touching, and then gives us a final scene that accentuates the best of everything from the previous 90 minutes.   Fading Gigolo fits perfectly into Turturroís filmography as a director, and itís also the most accessible movie heís ever made. In many ways, itís the yin to the yang of his underappreciated 2005 blue-collar musical Romance & Cigarettes. And longtime Woody fans will leave wondering why, since Allen doesnít give himself material this good anymore, he doesnít act in other peopleís movies more often.