A vividly personal (and sometimes graphically erotic) character study of an overly stressed, socially stunted dot-com programmer and his desperately warped courtship of an icily beautiful and very skeptical stripper, this potent film by Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club, Smoke, Chinese Box) deftly plumbs its characters' damaged souls. When neurotic and lonely Richard (Peter Sarsgaard) meets Florence (Molly Parker) in a coffee shop, he offers her $10,000 to spend a week with him in Las Vegas, hoping that after some time alone together such an unattainable girl might find something in him to love. But while Florence grows to like him, she feels nothing at all when they have sex. Thanks to Wang's strong direction and intimate performances from Sarsgaard and Parker, the layered symbolism and voyeurism gets under the viewer's skin. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)
The Center of the World
Artisan, 88 min., not rated, VHS: $110.99, DVD: $24.98, Dec. 18 Volume 16, Issue 6
The Center of the World
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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