Love Ranch (2010)

Love Ranch (2010)
Studio: Capitol Films and Road Rebel
Release Date: June 30, 2010
Director: Taylor Hackford


by James Klein

Opening in very limited release this summer, Love Ranch is now on DVD for all to see. I wondered how a film directed by Taylor Hackford starring Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci could get very little publicity. After watching the film, I now know why. Love Ranch is just plain boring and downright bad.

Based on a true story (although I believe very loosely) about a husband and wife team who run the Love Ranch, a legal prostitution house in Reno , NV . While that sounds interesting, the film decides to focus on the romance between the wife (a bored Mirren who does her best with what she was given) and an Argentina boxer who was brought to the ranch by her husband (Pesci) with dreams of making a buck with this boxer. Very quickly, Mirren and the boxer fall for one another and their chemistry is just non existent. Not once did I believe either one of these characters could suddenly fall for one another. Pesci is just plain bad and completely mis-cast as the hot tempered cheating husband who loves his wife but yet doesn't respect her. Some of his lines are laughably bad and when he tries to cry when he loses his wife, it just looks awkward.

I have said before the greatest sin in film making is making a boring film and Hackford accomplishes this goal. Clocking in at almost two hours, this film just drags and with weak performances, a bad script and plain characters the film falls apart very quickly. What is most interesting is Pesci trying to deal with a religious group who picket the ranch, wanting the whore house shut down or his love for boxing with possible ties to the mob. But the film just touches on this briefly and wants to focus on this bizarre relationship between Mirren and this younger man. It just doesn't work at all.

Like the love ranch itself, you will get screwed if you decide to visit it.