Woody Allen doesn’t understand cell phones and still writes his scripts on a typewriter, so if he had written what looks like an older, politer ripoff of Deuce Bigelow, I’d know it was probably just coincidental (I guarantee you Woody Allen has never heard of Deuce Bigelow). But Fading Gigolo was written and directed by John Turturro, and I don’t know what his excuse is. I tend to like movies like this when they go full fantasy, like Midnight in Paris, or the Woody Allen-vignette in New York Stories where his mother was trapped in the sky – but if you like more grounded, but still totally unbelievable comedy, like a film where Sharon Stone and Sofia Vergara’s heaving cleavage need to hire a male prostitute, Fading Gigolo is for you.
Though I admit, I enjoy Liev Shrieber with sidelocks.
Is there anything in this that’s close enough to a believable human interaction for it to be funny, or is it just straight up wish fulfillment? Rob Schneider made this movie, Spike Lee made a version of this movie… I think the take away here is that dudes really want to be seen as sex objects.
Opens April 18th.