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Film: Fading Gigolo
Cinema: Eastgate
Cast: John Turturro, Woody Allen, Vanessa Paradis, Sofia Vergara, Sharon Stone, Live Schreiber, Tonya Pinkins, Max Casella, Aida Turturro.
Director: John Turturro
Type of film: urban comedy Running time: 88 minutes
Age restriction: 16
Reviewed by Joel White

All the praise and all the criticism which has been written and spoken about this film should properly find its way to one explanation: the director of the film and its leading man are one and the same person: John Turturro.

Hollywood wisdom has long ago ordained: “when the director and the leading man are one and the same, who will be there to cry ‘enough’? The price paid for the violation of this rule can be viewed lying side by side with the freedom given to the ‘star-director’ in not having to satisfy a committee.

Fading Gigolo was made in and is all about Brooklyn, one of the five parts of that overly large megalopolis where I was born and raised: New York City.

For that reason alone it is to be recommended for those who are travellers at heart. But for those who aren’t: beware!  It may seem to be too much of a good thing.

New York City, with its more than 8 million populations, is made up of five parts, called boroughs. Of the five, two are largest and best known: Manhattan and Brooklyn.  Internecine warfare (with invective, not guns) is perpetually taking place between the two.

This film is happily not about that war but it will give the viewer an understanding of why those from Manhattan, like me, find it easy to hurl epithets at the Brooklynites.

If what the viewer of this film sees is behaviour, said to be typical of Brooklyn, however bizarre, which appears incredible, he can be calmed when told that both Woody Allen (1935) and John Turturro (1957) were born in Brooklyn. Turturro (Fiorato in the film) is hired by Allen (Murray in the film) to escort lonely ladies on dates, for which, we are told, the ladies pay hundreds of dollars. And this is only one of the outrageous fables the viewer is expected to swallow.

On the other hand, the film introduces us to a private police force which the Jewish temples have established. If true, this comes as news to me.