WHORE
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
88 min., NC-17, Drama, 1991 Director: Ken Russell Cast: Theresa Russell, Benjamin Mouton, Antonio Fargas, Elizabeth Movelead, Daniel Quinn, Jason Saucier, Sanjay, Micahel Crabtree, Jared Barclay, Doug MacHugh, Amanda Goodwin, Frank Smith, Jason Kristofer, Tom Villard, Ginger Lynn Allen, Jack Nance
WHORE depicts a day in the life of a prostitute. It follows one prostitute, played by Theresa Russell, from morning till night. Along the way Russell talks about her life and those she loves.
WHORE is a gritty, depressing, graphic, yet powerful and emotional film. WHORE is *not* an erotic or porno film. It doesn't try to titillate you in any way. It contains minimal nudity, and the sex scenes are less than erotic. Instead it shows what a prostitute goes through. The film does not try to please you, but on the other hand, it doesn't purposely offend you. Many people probably will be offended because of the straightforwardness of this film, but it isn't for everybody. People who are out looking for cheap thrills will be sorely disappointed with this film. If you are in the mood for a good drama, and you are watching with an open mind, you will probably love this film. WHORE is available in two versions, an NC-17 rated version and an unrated version. The unrated version runs for 5 more minutes than the NC-17 one. One a scale of zero to five, I give WHORE a five. WHORE is rated NC-17 for explicit language, adult situations, and female nudity.
Part of the reason this film ends up so good is because of its excellent cast. Theresa Russell gives a very powerful and emotional performance. This may be her best film yet. She brought me right into her character and made me feel for her. Benjamin Mouton gives an equally powerful performance as Russell's slimeball pimp. He makes his character repellent, yet shows that he is a human too. Antonio Fargas plays a weird guy who Russell meets on the street. His is an impressive performance. The rest of the cast of this film, who all have bit parts, do a great job. Especially Jack Nance as the school teacher, Ginger Lynn Allen as the hurt prostitute, Tom Villard as the hippie, the person who played the no-condom man, and Russell's book friend.
I really enjoyed the opening song "Doing the Bang" by Fascinating Force. I feel that it accurately shows the way many people feel about prostitutes. I feel this song was much more appropriate than some rock song that has nothing to do with the movie. I don't remember the rest of the music from the movie. At least it wasn't distracting.
Ken Russell's (no relation to Theresa) directing is excellent and the writing is superb. The story is very gripping and interesting. Theresa Russell's flashbacks are well weaved into the film so they don't appear awkward. The actors don't send up with any moronic dialog, which sometimes happens in films.
WHORE does not condone, or put down, prostitution. It shows it for what it is, and nothing more; mostly from the prostitute's point of view, some as seen by the pimp, and a very little as seen by the customer. WHORE could probably have gotten away with an R rating, except that the subject matter requires a certain amount of maturity. This is not appropriate for young teens.
Ken J. blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews