The Center of the World

So what is the center of the world? This film gives two different views on the subject. One being the Internet and the computer its on, since you are at the epicenter of everything, anything you want is just a click away. The other idea for what the center is, is the vagina, as claimed by the other main character in the story.

We start the movie with our two main characters, a man who can make money easily but seems to have trouble with meeting a woman, and the woman he's hired to spend a weekend in Las Vegas with. As we learn about them, we never really get a full view of who they are, just fractured pieces. He seems very nice, and her very distant, but it makes sense, she is simply there for him to have sex with. She has laid down ground rules, no kissing on the lips, and no actual penetration, but it seems all else is fair game. As we learn about them in flashback we catch glimpses of how they met and got to the point they are at in Vegas, but the flashbacks are clumsy and forced. As well as being almost completely monochromatic, an effect that sometimes works to denote the past, but in this it just didn't work. They shot on video, which mostly works against them, but there are a few very nicely composed shots, and for the most part the video look is easily ignored in this film.

It does get graphic at times, and was showing me things I didn't care to see, but I would rather be pushed to the edge and look over than to have a bland movie that does what all the others do. It is very well acted by Peter Sarsgaard, and Molly Parker, both very believable and natural.

When it comes to the title and what she says the center of the world is they don't stray away from that, he wants her and is falling in love, and she is letting him, and pretending. It's a story that happens a lot, the woman prostitute who pretends to care but really doesn't, and the guy who falls for it. They make a pretty strong case that all it is is money, and they push it hard. You want her to like him, and you want him to look at her for what she really is, instead of what he wants her to be. They both do terrible things to one another in the story, and you cant help but sort of despise both of them at different times but it fades.

The story is about loneliness and how looking for a fix to that in the wrong place will just compound the hurt. You don't go to a hooker for love, like you don't go to Disney World to see a real castle. Sarsgaards character learns this the hard way, and Parker learns the hard way what can happen when you play with peoples emotions and good will.

If you are bothered by sex, or the story that I've explained doesn't appeal to you on paper then it wont appeal to you as a film. Ive seen better in terms of what the story is trying to get across, but it was a good effort and certainly has its qualities, if a little depraved. 6/10 stars.