Review of Fading Gigolo (2013) by Graham K — 24 May 2014

The best film Woody Allen never made.

Directing, writing and starring in his own films isn't all Tuturro has taken from Allen on this film.

Clearly influenced by Allen's mid-to-late period comedies, he walks the streets of Manhattan suburbanites, with a suitably Allen-esque soundtrack. Though for all this, he makes the film very much his own.

As one would expect from the cast, all the performances are very good, with Allen giving his best preformance outside one of own movies, ever.

But it is Vanessa Paradis as Avigal, the widow from the highly orthodox Jewish community who steals every scene she is in, with the massage scene being particularly affecting.

Both highly funny and moving, this is a film that explores many different kinds of lonliness in a number of guises and the myriad ways this can manifest itself.

Yet curiously enough, this is something that seems to have been missed by a lot of critics, who seem to have been unable to get past the premise, set out in the very first scene, or get tangled up in the sexual politics of the thing and end up missing the point somewhat spectacularly.