Love Ranch (2010)

This film is a fictionalized account of the story of the first legal brothel in Nevada. It had the potential to be an excellent and insightful film. What it turns out to be though, is a half-assed, tired, and bland film that, even though it does have some good scenes and moments, is a really big disappointment and doesn't do justice to a story that deserves it.

I mostly place blame on the script. The story is fine, but the film is in dire need of a rewrite. The film decides to not really give a narrative that tells the history of the place, and instead focuses on a few of the characters (in depth) in the context of the ranch. It would be a better film had it been a more balanced account that provides a history of the ranch, as well as great insights into the people who worked there- kinda like Casino or Boogie Nights. In fact, for many reasons I don't even need to explain, this made me think about Casino a lot, and I kinda wished I was watching that instead.

Even with the characters who get focused on a lot, they still seems a little thin, and could have been developed a lot mroe and better. There's almost an hour of deleted scenes on the DVD, and while watchjing those, I saw plenty of stuff that could have been kept in the film (with some other stuff taken out). It made me realize that they didn't really have the film planned out fully. EIther that, or they should have just lobbied to go all and make an epic instead of having to pick and choose (and do so sloppily).

This film isn't terrible though, even if I am ripping into it. The cast is good, and it is nice to see Joe Pesci come out of retirement. Too bad he, Mirren, Sergio Peris-Mencheta (a guy who does a really great job) and all the others couldn't save it. I'm just disappointed that the film is just all over the place and doesn't do what it could have given the subject matter and particular story. Hackford an okay director, but I don't know what the hell went wrong here, or what he and the rest were thinking. I wasn't bored by this film, but all the crap that's wrong with it makes me feel like I should just split it down the middle and give it an even "Gentleman's C".