Cliente (Client) (A French Gigolo) (2008)

...a lamentably misguided piece of work...

In "Cliente," Judith(Nathalie Baye), 51, divorced, runs a successful home shopping business with her sister Irene(Josiane Balasko, who also wrote and directed) who is holding out for love with a man with an advanced degree. Judith is so busy that she has no time for a relationship herself, and instead has sex with younger gigolos. One of them, Patrick, ne Marco(Eric Caravaca), she takes a special liking to. Judith is not Marco's only client, as he has a few other women he services and receives gifts from which he turns over to his family. They have no idea where he really gets them nor does his wife of four years, Fanny(Isabelle Carre), whose hair salon he personally keeps afloat through his moonlighting. "Cliente" is about the crazy things that love and money drive people to do but as Tina Turner once sang, what's love got to do with it? The movie gets off to a promising start but goes nowhere quickly while telling its story from the vantage points of Judith, Fanny and Marco. This might have looked good on paper but here it falls flat as the combination of broad comedy and kitchen sink drama never quite gels. The movie might have had a chance if told solely from Marco's point of view, allowing the details of the lives of his customers to subtly work their way into his story, which is the most compelling of the three. While Nathalie Baye is a wonderful actress and there is a worldwide shortage of movies about older women, Judith's story simply reeks of cliche.