Love Ranch
PLOT:
Set in the late-1970s, depicting larger than life personalities living on the edge, ‘Love Ranch’ stars Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci as Grace Bontempo and Charlie Bontempo, the husband and wife team who own and run Nevada’s first legalized brothel.
Their lives are suddenly altered when Armando Bruza, a husky, world famous heavy weight boxer from South America, played by Spanish actor Sergio Peris-Mencheta, is brought to the Ranch to train as part of Charlie’s ever-expanding entrepreneurial empire. Plans quickly go awry when Bruza comes between Grace and Charlie as an unforeseen love triangle develops that erupts into uncontrollable passion and murder.
REVIEW:
So, I just finished watching what very may have been one of the top 5 worst movies in my life, in The Last Airbender. Now it is time to turn my attention to a bit of drama. This can’t be anywhere near as bad as that was, right?
Apparently, Love Ranch is based on a true story about a brothel owner in Nevada and his wife who runs off with a prize-fighter.
That is the basic plot of this film, but there is also some other stuff going on here, such as the infidelity of the husband with various women in the brothel they own, the development of the relationship between the wife and the boxer, nad then the characterization of each of the girls, as well as the cat fights.
In theory, a film about a brothel, complete with infidelity and the like should be very interesting, right? Well, this one just didn’t seem to cut it. At times, it felt like it was making too hard of an effort to capture that indie vibe, and at others it seemed as if it were just trying to be something like Boogie Nights or 54, which it most definitely isn’t.
The development of these characters is slow, but at least we are allowed to feel or not feel for them, although it sort of feels as if we are forced to feel sorry for Helen Mirren’s character. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll love Helen Mirren no matter what, but the way the tone of this film was leaning, it was almost swayed more towards her side of the story. At least that’s how I saw it.
Speaking of Mirren, everyone is wondering how she ended up in this…a film that is obviously beneath her. Apparently, she is married to the director. So, I guess that explains it. Normally, I love Helen so much that I wold drink her dirty bathwater, but here she looked her age and this script didn’t even let her shine, which is something extremely hard to do, as she and Meryl Streep are arguably the two best actresses around today.
I read somewhere that Pesci look like Johnny Cash here. In the outfits they have him wearing here, as well as his aged face, I can’t argue. Also, his character seems to be very similar to the one he played in Goodfellas, though, arguably not as messed up in the head.
I wish we could have seen more of Gina Gershon. Her character seemed to have given this film a little something it needed, and that is a person of interest.
Love Ranch may sound like it should have been some sort of porn flick, but it is a serious drama. I didn’t have high expectation for this film. As a matter of fact, I didn’t have any, but considering the bas taste left in my mouth by The Last Airbender, could have watched Megan Fox and Kristen Stewart take acting lessons and it would have been interesting. However, while this film has some moments here and there that make it worthwhile, it never really made me want to keep watching, or watch again, except for the gratuitous Helen Mirren nipple shot a little past halfway through the flick. I’m sure there are those of you out there who will eat this kind of film up, and that’s great. My recommendation, though, is to not waste your time with this below average snorefest.
2 1/2 out of 5 stars
