The Center of the World Movie Review 2001

Put this one strongly in the love it or hate it category. Richard (Sarsgaard) is a wealthy dot.com geek who offers stripper Florence (Parker) a lot of dough to spend a few days with him in Vegas. She makes some strict rules about what she will and won't do for him--which she promptly breaks. They're both immature and vulnerable and inclined to play humiliating mind games with each other. The sex show turns out to be nothing to get hot and bothered about and the leads give as credible performances as the narrowness of their characters allow. Shot in digital video; the screenwriters used the pseud. "Ellen Benjamin Wong."

Distribution

Artisan Entertainment, 2700 Colorado Ave., Ste. 200, Santa Monica, CA 90404, Phone: (310)449-9200, Fax: (310)255-3730, URL: http://www.artisanent.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 86 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Sexcapades, Viva Las Vegas!, Strippers, Obsessive Love, Rape, Only the Lonely

Screenplay

Wayne Wang

Cast

Peter Sarsgaard, Molly Parker, Carla Gugino, Balthazar Getty, Mel Gorham

Cinematography

Mauro Fiore

Director

Wayne Wang

Other

James Steube, Deva Anderson, Deva Anderson, Lee Percy, Diana Kunce, Sophie de Rakoff Carbonell, Donald Graham Burt

Producer

Peter Newman, Wayne Wang, Redeemable Features, Artisan Entertainment