Fading Gigolo (2013)

• Year: 2013
• Released: 09 Apr 2014
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 2 wins & 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2258345/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Fading_Gigolo
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/fading-gigolo
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, French, Spanish, Ladino, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Latin
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Comedy, Romance
• Runtime: 90 min
• Writer: John Turturro
• Director: John Turturro
• Cast: John Turturro, Woody Allen, Sharon Stone
• Keywords: new york city, friendship, sexual fantasy, gigolo, money problems,

	6.2/10
	58/100
	54% – Critics
	41% – Audience

Fading Gigolo Storyline

In a predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn, elderly Murray Schwartz is forced to close his rare used books bookstore – opened originally by his grandfather – due to poor business, leaving him in financial straits, he already living in a platonic situation with an African-American single mother named Othella and her large brood of children. He stumbles onto a potential opportunity to get out of the hole stemming from a casual social conversation with his wealthy, married dermatologist, Dr. Parker. Dr. Parker and her Latina friend Selima want to engage in a ménage à trois, and want to find that male third, she asking Murray if he knows anyone suitable. Murray responds that he does – for a hefty price. Who he wants to “pimp out” is his long time friend, middle-aged Fioravante, as although Fioravante is not traditionally handsome – something that Fioravante readily admits – he knows how to treat women. Fioravante, too, is in financial straits with his only current income coming from working two days a week at a florist shop, and the occasional freelance plumbing job. To help both himself and Murray out, Murray who would get a percentage of the cut, Fioravante reluctantly agrees, with both Dr. Parker and Selima wanting to take solo test drives with Fioravante before the big threesome. Murray and Fioravante’s new oldest profession business becomes a successful one, their clients, including Dr. Parker ad Selima, who adore the fact that Fioravante is not a pretty boy but a real man who focuses more on them than on himself. Although doing it primarily for the money, both Murray and Fioravante have a benevolent side to their business as Murray believes Fioravante’s caring nature would benefit an orthodox Jewish acquaintance, Avigal, who has been unable to move on emotionally with her life in a holistic sense following the death of her rabbi husband two years ago. Fioravante’s non-sexual service for Avigal would be under the guise of a healing massage. Problems for the business may surface as Avigal embarking on something like this would be against her orthodox Jewish beliefs. Dovi, the head of Shomrim, an orthodox Jewish neighborhood patrol group, he who is Avigal’s childhood friend and who has long been in love with her, may suspect that these strange men that he doesn’t know – Murray and Fioravante – have led Avigal astray, potentially into an illegal endeavor. Further complications may ensue if any of Fioravante, Dr. Parker, Selima and/or Avigal see their individual business relationship in this regard moving into a more personal one, where true feelings of love begin to emerge.

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Fading Gigolo Movie Reviews

Who wants a woody?

Fading Gigolo looks like a Woody Allen film, he does appear in this.

However it is directed, written and stars John Turturro who plays Fioravante who works part time in a rare bookshop owned by Murray Schwartz (Woody Allen.) The bookstore is in financial trouble and will soon close down.

Murray tells Fioravante that his dermatologist Dr Parker (Sharon Stone) wants a threesome with her girlfriend Selima (Sofía Vergara) and she is wiling to pay good money.

Fioravante who is short of money agrees and Murray becomes his pimp. Later Murray coaxes a widow of a rabbi to see Fioravante. Avigal (Vanessa Paradis) does have a tender friendship with him but a local security watch guard Dovi (Liev Schreiber) becomes jealous has he is infatuated by Avigal.

Turturro is not someone who you would describe as being conventionally handsome. As an actor he tends to be intense but here he is rather low key. It also smacks of a vanity project with him being a romantic gigolo. I did not buy it and this is someone who has watched decades of Woody Allen films romancing beautiful women.

The main problem is that the script is flimsy and incoherent. It is unsure whether it wants to be a crude sex comedy or a charming comedy drama but it comes across as a little dull.

Wisely he leaves the comedy to Allen who is the best thing in this.

sorry no laughs

Murray Schwartz (Woody Allen) is forced to close his rare books store which his grandfather started. His dermatologist Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone) tells him that she and her girlfriend Selima (Sofía Vergara)want to experience a ménage à trois. He tries to pimp out his friend part-time florist Fioravante (John Turturro). Fioravante agrees to a tryout first with only Parker. Avigal (Vanessa Paradis) is the widow of a rabbi who cleans Murray’s kid of lice. Murray convinces her to try out Fioravante. Dovi (Liev Schreiber) is in the local Jewish neighborhood watch Shomrim who is jealously in love with Avigal.

Comedy is subjective and I subjectively don’t like it. I get where the jokes are suppose to come from but I didn’t laugh. John Turturro hardly smiles and that gets tiresome. Woody is trying so hard that it borders on plagiarizing himself. None of these people are particularly likable. The only one is Avigal whose touching story almost works. The movie has a weird odd mixture that keeps it from being bland but it’s just not funny.

Worth a watch for Woody

If you have seen trailers or advertising for this film, they may have almost exclusively focused on Woody Allen just like it was for me. However, the main player behind “Fading Gigolo” (“Suddenly Gigolo”) is John Turturro. He directed it, he wrote it and he plays the central character Fioravante. It sure takes a lot of guts to write a character described by women as a top stud between the sheets and then cast yourself for that role. I knew him mostly from his performance on the TV show “Monk”, which brought him an Emmy as the title character’s brother. Of course he was also in “Barton Fink” and many more. Apart from Allen and Turturro, Vanessa Paradis (mostly known for her longtime relationship with Johnny Depp) plays the female main role. Supporting players are Sofia Vergara (“Modern Family”), Liev Schreiber (“Ray Donovan”) and Sharon Stone (“Casino”), the two ladies being actually typecast for roles that do not look too different than some of their work in the past.

The best part of the film was probably Allen playing a pimp. He brought the comedic highlights of the movie while Paradis was responsible for the dramatic highlights. Turturro I am not so sure what to think of his performance. I felt it was a bit empty and for the most of the film, he was just there and I wasn’t really impacted by his actions. Just like he directed it, I felt all the interesting things in this film had not too much to do with him. If you are nice, you could say, he was quietly convincing. Anyway back to Allen, if some more people had actually seen this film, he may have even been in consideration for a Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars. But he doesn’t care anyway, so it’s fine I guess. There was one scene where his character makes a quote about competition, which was pretty funny given Allen’s long history of absence at award ceremonies.

One of the most interesting things here is how all the women admired the name Fioravante as he must be some great Italian lover and the one he actually likes doesn’t even know his name. The ending I am not sure what to think of or if I liked it. Obviously, Paradis’ character only saw him as a helper to her grief and all of a sudden, she was ready to marry Schreiber’s character? It came all out of nowhere and felt pretty weird to me. I don’t need a happy end, but if it is unhappy, it has to be at least somewhat credible and I did not think it was. At least they avoided the usual drama when she finds out what he actually does. And the very final scene, with the other lady was pretty insignificant too. It felt only included to make the viewer leave the theater with a smile, but it did not fit at all in relation to everything what happened before. Paradis and Turturro seemed to have good chemistry, so I would have preferred a happy ending in this case I think.

One real highlight where the dialogs between Fioravante and his pimp. Well, actually it was mostly the pimp talking all the time. I also liked the music (including Dean Martin’s “Sway”), but as a whole I would really only recommend this one to Woody Allen completionists.