I can't figure out why people--guys especially--seem to hate Richard Gere so much. I don't think he's the greatest actor of his generation or anything, and photographed from the wrong angle, he can look kind of creepy, especially when he was younger. (He has aged gracefully IMO.) But when cast within his range, he's capable, charismatic and attractive, and he seems able to laugh at himself. So really, I don't get the hate and I didn't dislike "American Gigolo" because of Richard Gere.

Rather, I disliked "American Gigolo," because it kept too much of a distance from its characters and its themes for the audience to engage with them. I had just read Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays," another indictment of the superficiality, materialism and spiritual deadness of affluent Southern California. That book was brilliant because its hard surfaces were fragile and you could reach in and touch its narrator's anguish. While writer-director Paul Schrader has done some great work ("Taxi Driver" for instance), this story of Julian Kaye,  who sleeps with wealthy older women for money and gets caught in a web of suspicion after a client is murdered, never lets the viewer in deep enough to feel anything. You get subtle hints of Julian's malaise. He has stacks of pictures in his apartment that he flips through but never hangs on the wall. He expresses frustration that he can't do work other than be a male escort, but that doesn't even make sense because he shows a remarkable aptitude for learning languages. We know nothing of where he's from, what dreams he may have brought with him, or how or why he became what he is. Maybe his problem is that his ambition was misdirected in the first place and he thought having material stuff was all he would need to be fulfilled, but we never find out. He seems to have little in common, other than loneliness and physical attraction, with Michelle, the wife of an ambitious politician with whom he has an unpaid relationship (Lauren Hutton), so her enduring devotion to him and belief in his goodness doesn't make a lot of sense either.

Maybe the movie would have worked better with Julie Christie playing Michelle (she was in talks at one point), but I doubt it. I don't think the script would have given even the most gifted actors enough to work with. Schrader's analysis is fine, giving "American Gigolo the potential to have been an excellent movie, but his directorial and scriptwriting choices left me cold.
I can't figure out why people--guys especially--seem to hate Richard Gere so much. I don't think he's the greatest actor of his generation or anything, and photographed from the wrong angle, he can look kind of creepy, especially when he was younger. (He has aged gracefully IMO. ) But when cast within his range, he's capable, charismatic and attractive, and he seems able to laugh at himself. So really, I don't get the hate and I didn't dislike "American Gigolo" because of Richard Gere. Rather, I disliked "American Gigolo," because it kept too much of a distance from its characters and its themes for the audience to engage with them. I had just read Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays," another indictment of the superficiality, materialism and spiritual deadness of affluent Southern California. That book was brilliant because its hard surfaces were fragile and you could reach in and touch its narrator's anguish. While writer-director Paul Schrader has done some great work ("Taxi Driver" for instance), this story of Julian Kaye,  who sleeps with wealthy older women for money and gets caught in a web of suspicion after a client is murdered, never lets the viewer in deep enough to feel anything. You get subtle hints of Julian's malaise. He has stacks of pictures in his apartment that he flips through but never hangs on the wall. He expresses frustration that he can't do work other than be a male escort, but that doesn't even make sense because he shows a remarkable aptitude for learning languages. We know nothing of where he's from, what dreams he may have brought with him, or how or why he became what he is. Maybe his problem is that his ambition was misdirected in the first place and he thought having material stuff was all he would need to be fulfilled, but we never find out. He seems to have little in common, other than loneliness and physical attraction, with Michelle, the wife of an ambitious politician with whom he has an unpaid relationship (Lauren Hutton), so her enduring devotion to him and belief in his goodness doesn't make a lot of sense either. Maybe the movie would have worked better with Julie Christie playing Michelle (she was in talks at one point), but I doubt it. I don't think the script would have given even the most gifted actors enough to work with. Schrader's analysis is fine, giving "American Gigolo the potential to have been an excellent movie, but his directorial and scriptwriting choices left me cold.