3.0 KiB
+++ title = "The Escort (2015)" date = 2021-02-03 updated = 2021-02-12
[taxonomies] tags = ["movies", "reviews", "comedy", "movies:2021", "stars:2"] +++
Journalist Mitch is a sex addict. When he is fired, he applies for a job with a magazine. The editor promises to hire him if he writes a more interesting article than his competitors. He decides to write about Natalie, a Stanford-educated escort he met by chance.
{{ stars(stars=2) }}
Honestly, I'm not even sure this should be a 2-star movie. I mean, look at the plot: It's some guy and a escort and they start going together. Do you have a feeling this would end up like Pretty Woman? Heck, this is even mentioned in the movie, by Natalie/Victoria, asking if Mitch thinks this would end up like the (other) movie.
Well, it does, and the quip in the movie doesn't do anything to soften the slouch of clichés in the movie: Surely the guy who doesn't get attached to anyone will get attached to the girl; surely the girl will rethink her profession and only then will consider going into a relationship; surely something will change in the girls life to make her get out of her job; surely the attraction between them would make the guy rethink his addiction; surely after that his relationship to those around him will get a 180 degree turn to the best.
But the thing is... I have a crush on Lyndsy Fonseca. Not just she's pretty, her acting doesn't look like acting. OK, it's not Donald Sutherland level of acting but heck, the way she speaks feels like some real person, in whatever situation she's in, speaking. It's not from this movie, but even in Kick-Ass it was pretty damn good. There is a scene when Mitch tells, among other things, that Natalie is pretty and she quips back "Oh, you think I'm pretty?" in a juvenile/childish way that feels incredible natural. And that's why it is not just a single star.
Michael Doneger, Fonseca's pair, on the other hand, it is pretty hard case. Personally -- and I'm saying this as a movie-watcher, not a movie-critic, something that I'm not -- I can't see his acting being that good, but also the lines feed to him -- which, apparently, were also written by him -- seem forced and not that much natural. Sure the chemistry with Fonseca work, but the character itself is not that good.
In the end, I guess the movie could distance itself from "Pretty Woman" by simply not going that road: Make Mitch still be a sex addict; make Natalie still be an escort; let their friendship/relationship not get into what the characters are. I mean, there is something in a scene where the two are discussing clinics for STDs and their posters. Let it continue from there. They could even keep the relationship while keeping their problems/jobs. Make something... different. Challenge the status quo that a relationship can't work if one side is a sex addict and the other a hooker.
It's not a boring movie, it's just... bland.