Only the final short paragraph has spoilers.
I found this movie to be greatly moving. I'm not such an easy sell on those sorts of emotions in films. I love films, all sorts of films. It's not so hard for me to like a movie for something (yeaah Pauline Kael). But deeply moving? I don't say or feel that so often.
It starts oh so differently than it end.
We begin with a beautiful but aging in her line of work (mid 40s) and clearly the worse for wear lower end prostitute (but not lowest) being roughed up, though mostly threatened, by a pimp over a large debt, perhaps money stolen from him, which we are lead to believe he thinks she really does owe. Aside from our natural sympathy for beautiful women being roughed up by brutish men, she also seems brave but overwhelmed. However, we also think given her former and to a degree present beauty she must be a woman of base instincts (probably sex and thrill submission addicted) and little to no self control, who has been bottom feeding for a long time. So one settles into the likely somewhat lurid tale of a woman being taken advantage of, who though she shouldn't be brutalized, maybe is more interesting as an object of pretty base lust, who we can hope will clean up enough to be more inspiring in that regard.
As I said it transitions into something very different.
We end up learning that while all our first impressions were probably more or less true, it came about for reasons very different than we thought, given the standard range of cinematic scenarios for this plight -- overwhelming drug addition, childhood and continuing thereafter abuse at the hands of controlling males, or blackmail inducing submission to sexual debasement, and then once barriers have been crossed and self image destroyed, descent into hopelessly self destructive thrills of the moment. And yes there are signs that some of these things (not saying which to avoid spoilers here) may have been part of her story. But not the crucial, breaking part. It was something else that caused the initial descent, or rather initiated two or more lengthy descents. Once we realize that and what it was, it has real plausibility and becomes an aaah-hah - there may be quite a few, maybe pretty many, cases like hers out there.
The ending is a sort of French Hollywood ending. More reasonable and settling than the prototypical Hollywood ending, but just right and hopeful and plausible. None of us can be sure it will work out but who among us doesn't hope that it will?
Oh and most of the on screen men, after the initial scenes, are good guys with the power and moxie to be otherwise to this vulnerable and once (and possibly once again) beautiful woman. Which is refreshing.
BIG SPOILERS-DON'T READ IF HAVEN'T SEEN: One last thing. Well more than half the user reviewers don't seem to realize that she's intermittently SERIOUSLY mentally ill. Schizophrenic episodes with memory loss I'd guess. Is she on prescribed psychotropic pills otherwise to stay in remission? We aren't shown. The director may be vague or wrong about the exact science, but that's the MESSAGE! Geeezee.
I found this movie to be greatly moving. I'm not such an easy sell on those sorts of emotions in films. I love films, all sorts of films. It's not so hard for me to like a movie for something (yeaah Pauline Kael). But deeply moving? I don't say or feel that so often.
It starts oh so differently than it end.
We begin with a beautiful but aging in her line of work (mid 40s) and clearly the worse for wear lower end prostitute (but not lowest) being roughed up, though mostly threatened, by a pimp over a large debt, perhaps money stolen from him, which we are lead to believe he thinks she really does owe. Aside from our natural sympathy for beautiful women being roughed up by brutish men, she also seems brave but overwhelmed. However, we also think given her former and to a degree present beauty she must be a woman of base instincts (probably sex and thrill submission addicted) and little to no self control, who has been bottom feeding for a long time. So one settles into the likely somewhat lurid tale of a woman being taken advantage of, who though she shouldn't be brutalized, maybe is more interesting as an object of pretty base lust, who we can hope will clean up enough to be more inspiring in that regard.
As I said it transitions into something very different.
We end up learning that while all our first impressions were probably more or less true, it came about for reasons very different than we thought, given the standard range of cinematic scenarios for this plight -- overwhelming drug addition, childhood and continuing thereafter abuse at the hands of controlling males, or blackmail inducing submission to sexual debasement, and then once barriers have been crossed and self image destroyed, descent into hopelessly self destructive thrills of the moment. And yes there are signs that some of these things (not saying which to avoid spoilers here) may have been part of her story. But not the crucial, breaking part. It was something else that caused the initial descent, or rather initiated two or more lengthy descents. Once we realize that and what it was, it has real plausibility and becomes an aaah-hah - there may be quite a few, maybe pretty many, cases like hers out there.
The ending is a sort of French Hollywood ending. More reasonable and settling than the prototypical Hollywood ending, but just right and hopeful and plausible. None of us can be sure it will work out but who among us doesn't hope that it will?
Oh and most of the on screen men, after the initial scenes, are good guys with the power and moxie to be otherwise to this vulnerable and once (and possibly once again) beautiful woman. Which is refreshing.
BIG SPOILERS-DON'T READ IF HAVEN'T SEEN: One last thing. Well more than half the user reviewers don't seem to realize that she's intermittently SERIOUSLY mentally ill. Schizophrenic episodes with memory loss I'd guess. Is she on prescribed psychotropic pills otherwise to stay in remission? We aren't shown. The director may be vague or wrong about the exact science, but that's the MESSAGE! Geeezee.