A film starring Richard Gere back when he was hot where he plays a male escort? Uh yeah, sign me up! Oh my, I was pretty excited to see this which is what made it so disappointing when I realized it’s just one long wooden slog from start to finish. The plot is so unbelievably slow and uninteresting, the characters are impossible to like, and the performances come off as dull. There isn’t very much to admire here other than a shirtless young Richard Gere.
So first off let me start out by saying that while Gere is obviously very sexy and smooth here, I’ve never liked him as an actor. I’ve never enjoyed him in any film to be honest. I’ve always found him rather boring and lackluster. I never saw what Julia Roberts saw in Pretty Woman. Here, he is exactly what I’d expect him to be: uninteresting and brooding. I don’t like it when characters are just down and tiresome all the time for no apparent reason; it makes me check out. If you’re going to be that way then give me a good reason why; that’s just basic character development. Gere’s character is impossible to like or really connect with. This probably sounds shallow but I only liked him for the half nude sexy scenes he was in, I really didn’t care about his character or what happened to him. Lauren Hutton plays his female love interest and does a decent job, I suppose. She is also very downtrodden all the time and proves difficult to like. She has some good moments and her acting isn’t bad here but I didn’t really feel for her character or care much about her.
Another issue that arises due to both Gere and Hutton being so downtrodden all the time is that we’re stuck with this gloomy melodramatic fog hanging over all their scenes. We really never get a break from the gloomy feeling because that seems to be the chosen mood attached to every single scene in the entire film. Because I didn’t like either of the leads and couldn’t connect with them, it also made their relationship unlikable. I just didn’t care about them because the film never gives me much of a reason to. I mean sure I guess their love scenes are sexy enough but anything beyond that is completely lost.
The plot is kind of jumbled and above all, really boring. The film goes on for a good while before the “thriller” aspect comes into play and even when that factor is introduced, I still didn’t care about what was going on. It is not thrilling or suspenseful in any way, shape, or form. After the halfway mark I had to really try to focus and was checking how much more time was left pretty often. I should not be feeling this way or doing that in an erotic thriller. If I am then something is wrong.
I was honestly pretty shocked at how much of a lifeless slog this film turned out to be. I figured a film about a young Richard Gere working as a sexy smooth escort would be exciting, thrilling, and tantalizing. American Gigolo isn’t any of those things. The thriller part is for sure not exciting and the love scenes aren’t at all tantalizing. That leaves this film with basically the only positive thing being seeing a sexy young Richard Gere. Oh and I also didn’t care to hear Gere use the word f****t a lot. It made him even more unlikable which I didn’t think was possible.
American Gigolo left a bad taste in my mouth. That bad taste was caused by dull unlikable characters, a boring plot, and a pace so slow it could put you to sleep! This thing is a slog that you should avoid.
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