Review of The Client List

Sometimes, Lifetime Channel makes really good movies. This isn't one of them. The Client List is both disgusting and stupid. It's sad to think that they made a 2012 TV Series out of this trash. There is nothing sexy about Jennifer Love Hewitt sleeping with old men, cheaters, and having sex with ugly men risking STDS for money. How you feel about prostitution, and whether it is a victimless crime, may determine if you like or dislike this film. I don't like this movie because it made itself to be a sexy fun drama, and instead a message movie that shows the dark side of prostitution and the dangers. I was really hoping for a Night of Cabiria (1957) or Vivre Sa Vie (1962) feel to the film. Wow, was I deeply wrong. Jennifer Love Hewitt starts as Samantha Horton, a wife and mother turned prostitute when she lands a job at call house/a massage parlor due to serious financial hardships. The town has no clue that hiding behind the doors of what appears to be a legitimate business, the girls do more than just give a massage.Her clueless husband is played by Teddy Sears as a pretty wimpy guy who was once a football star. He's had a knee injury but we aren't sure why he can't hold down another job. It's never explain. I found him only there to shame Samantha for turning into a hooker. He plays little to no part of the story, besides that reason. The Client List might be based on a true story of the 2004, the West Texas sex scandal that rocked the city of Odessa, Texas when a police investigation of the Healing Touch massage parlor uncovered allegations of prostitution and city corruption, but the movie takes such liberties to the story. Unlike the movie, where most of the the sex acts happens in its close door in the massage parlor. In real life, the clients would ask them for a girl to meet at a certain time and then she goes to their choice of a hotel and then they'll meet there, and have their session. Surrprising the lead actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, was actually nominated for a Golden Globe for this film. I usually love Jennifer Love Hewett's work, but I hate this concept, and I'm embarrassed for her that she would lower herself to this standard. I have to say her acting is most campy. Her southern accent sounds awful and makes her look dumb. Sam wrestles with this decision periodically, as she also get hook on drugs. She didn't want to become a prostitute. She was against it from the very start and turned down the job, but she ends up doing it due to greed. Rather than quiting, she rides it until it can't go any further. The movie loves to say, the men who buy their time with the hookers were bad and make the women look like victims. I have to say, both the men and the women are to blame for their awful decision making. There are no organized crime men running the operation. It's all women! The only male who is dangerous to the women, at least as depicted in the film is the one John who gives and sells Samantha Horton drugs. There is no violence and even the language is mild. There are not victims, at all, movie. They deserve everything they got store for them in the end. This movie is also one of the most misogynistic film, I ever saw. I'm not saying that prostitution is immoral, but to glamorize it is wrong because prostitution is actually very degrading and dangerous for the women who do it. This was made for the female-targeted Lifetime Network, and her performance will probably set women back 20 years. Samantha's mama, Cassie, is played by Cybill Shepherd in a very canny and welcome supporting role. The acting wasn't anything worth noting. The screenplay is very predictable, and there wasn't much nudity for a eroticism film. The prurient "ripped from the headline" scandal wallow in distasteful dramatic recreations and just bellow up. Overall, not worth it unless you're a fan of B-List, Lifetime movies.