Wonderful character development!

hyped garbage

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There's a reason this movie is unrated. The criteria for an R rating are likely overstepped. Seriously, all one needs to do to get a sense of what you're going to be watching is read the IMDb full storyline. Common sense prevailing, you know you'll be seeing nudity, erotic scenes, and that's why most will choose to see the movie. Yes, there's a fairly good character study story developed and both Molly Parker and Peter Sarsgaard do a good job of delivering performances that make it such. But let's face it, I'm not the only one that decided to view the film for the character study… as an afterthought. Carla Gugino thrown into the mix helped seal the deal for me. I have to warn the prospective viewers that you'll be seeing as much, if not more, of Sarsgaard's bottom than that of Parker's. I wonder if that could be considered a double spoiler.

It is easy enough I suppose to be cynical of a movie like The Center of the World, a movie about gratuitous sex with no plot to go along, but it would be the wrong way to approach this particular example. Film buffs could easily appreciate the movie as a case of style over substance. Its effectiveness is in its subtlety, never going over the top. What little plot there is may seem contrived, but in fact it has some credibility. I can believe that a story like this could happen in reality, just seldomly. The end result is a surprisingly mature feature, which is definitely not for a shallow minded viewerPorter invites his new friend Florence (a stripper) to come to Vegas with him for short vacation where they can have a few nights of uninterrupted sex. She agrees, but asks him to play by her rules: No sweet talk, no kissing, and no penetration (or something like that). Slowly she starts to fall for him, making it difficult to keep the trip strictly professional.There is never really much of a story to begin with, but this is part of what makes the film feel more natural I suppose. It sort of plays out a bit like Before Sunset, only with nudity in the place of dialogue. The Center of the World, though very mannered and slow, does make some progress, but the film runs out of steam in the last twenty minutes. Actually, 'steam' may be the wrong way to put it. The film moves more like a gondola than a steamer. Having seen his Oscar winning photography for Avatar, cinematographer Mauro Fiore's work on The Centre of the World could not seem more different. This is a striped down, desaturated, deliberately crude and grainy looking production where flash backs are low contrast black and white, and the picture quality increases in grain or unnatural colours when the mood swings. Well, it works, I'll say that much. I haven't seen Las Vegas portrayed this way since the Godfather.Molly Parker maintains a very good screen presence, and in fact she is not simply a body like Sharon Stone in Basic Instict, or Holly Hunter in Crash (David's Cronenbergs film, not the Paul Haggis movie). Florence is definitely a human being, both inside and out. Even the fact that her body is covered in freckles feels realistic. Pretty girls in erotic movies, are almost always spot feel it seems.The ending has nothing in the way of a payoff, but it is not uninteresting. It is one of those scenes which makes you uncertain of whether it is real or a state of mind. I'll leave you to see the film and decide for yourself.

It might not be a good movie for you to see in a movie theater, but it is actually quite a good R-Rated movie for watching at home during late hours. Too bad it doesn't end the way one comes to expect, but maybe it is closer to real life this way.

...Wayne Wang's notorious, controversial and explicit "CENTER OF THE WORLD" (Artisan, $.. is a much more polished piece of work than "Romance." It also explores the bleak terrain of emotional isolation. This time the protagonist is a rich internet geek (Peter Sarsgaard) who literally contracts with a rock and roll drummer and part-time stripper (Molly (Parker) for a sexual get-away in Las Vegas. The phoniness of Vegas and the impersonal internet are more than metaphors for what amounts to virtual sex in real life. The basic elements are familiar in countless other love stories, but here the physicality of the two main characters dominates everything. In many ways we root for them to break out of their protective shells and actually connect with the hearts.Sometimes the walls we build to keep out the bad cuts us off from life itself. This film, shot on high definition video, evokes a more personal and immediate response and is much more effective on DVD than it is projected in a theater. Longing for intimacy but in the grip of a fear of letting go leaves the main characters with only the option of exploring physical sensations as soulless.