Director: John Turturro
Writer: John Turturro
Cast: John Turturro, Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Vaneesa Paradis
Fioravante decides to become a professional Don Juan as a way of making money to help his cash-strapped friend. Murray. With Murray acting as his 'manager', the duo-Virgil & Bongo quickly finds themselves caught in the crosscurrents of love and money.
I haven't seen any of the other Turturro directed films and it seems he is acting in shitfests like Transformers to make money to do his own little films. Allen came to know about this film through his barber who also provide service to Turturro. Am not really a fan of actors taking up directorial roles and this film also kind of miss a certain snappiness that you should get with such a story and very Woody Allen like New York setting. It is at its best when the story is centered on the trio of Allen, Turturro and Paradis. What differentiates the film is its depiction of a certain Jewish lifestyle that is untouched by mainstream films. It is another one of those religions that oppresses its womenfolk and you only get a sense of it through rare press news about some Orthodox Jews demanding different seats in Planes if they find that a woman is sitting next to their designated seats. I guess those that practice such orthodoxy is rare in US mind.
Overall it is a good watch and it is kind of unique that Woody Allen is appearing in a film that is not directed by him. It made around $13 million at the box office and is designated as a flop. That is kind of surprising since I would hazard a guess that the star studded cast might have worked taking pay-cuts to do this out of their own goodwill. We also get a couple of language versions of legendary tango number 'Sway with Me' which can only be a good thing.
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