Love Ranch

Grace Botempo, Helen Mirren (The Queen) is standing at the overlook of Donner Pass. She is explaining to Armando Bruza, Sergio Peris-Menche (Al salir de clase) that when the Donner Party was trapped there in 1847 that they actually started eating each other in order to survive. Neither of them flinches at the idea of cannibalism. Both of them know what it is to live off the flesh of others.

Love Ranch is not a horror film, or a zombie movie; rather it is the fictional re-telling of the story of Joe and Sally Conforte, owners of the famous Mustang Ranch of Nevada. Opened in 1971 as the first legalized brothel, it became notorious for its prostitutes and party time environment. In 1976 Joe Conforte tried to expand his business empire by buying the contract of boxer Oscar Bonavena. Joe wanted Oscar to train at the ranch in order to draw attention to his thriving business. Unfortunately, the close proximity had an unforeseen result. Oscar ended up having an affair with Joe’s wife Sally and it got him killed.

The Love Ranch is an interesting character study of a couple that seems to have it all. But running a whorehouse has its drawbacks. In this story Grace is the glue holding it all together. She seldom leaves the place, watching diligently over the girls that live on the premises. Charlie, Joe Pesci (Goodfellas) is more of the front man, flashy, brash and glad-handing the public. He is the visionary. Grace is the nuts and bolts.

When Taylor Hackford (Ray) cast Joe Pesci as Charlie opposite his wife Helen Mirren, at first the idea seemed odd. Its hard to imagine the gangster playing opposite of the queen. But in this film, it really works. They have an strange chemistry that compliments each other. They are two sides of the same coin. As business partners they are a formidable team and you can really see the affection that they have for each other. But for me the biggest revelation in this film came in the form of Spanish actor Sergio Peris-Mencheta. He easily holds his own with Pesci and Mirren and he brings a nice vulnerability to his hulking boxer. At first he’s all about the hustle, flashing the smile, exuding the charm, but when he lets his guard down, Grace knocks him out with a sucker punch.

Taylor Hackford goes to great lengths to recapture the look of the seventies. He also gives us a view of the unglamorous side of prostitution. It’s like turning up the lights in a dingy bar. Some things just look better in poor light. For me, I had a problem with the clinical nature of the film. This is a story about sex and passion, but when played against the day-to-day operations of a brothel, a lot of the heat was dissipated. I would have liked to see a more dramatic change in Grace. Grace is a woman who has been a madam since she was twenty years old. It would take a lot to get past that armor.

At the Love Ranch, Charlie and Grace take sex and marginalize it into a business transaction. For them, nothing is personal. Yet, in their own lives they truly care for each other. They are husband and wife. Some how in all of the business of selling other people’s bodies, they lost site of each other and things got screwed up. I wish I could have seen more of the passion that got them together. The back-story of the politics of prostitution didn’t interest me at all. For me it’s all about what draws people together and what rips them apart. The Love Ranch touches on this, but I wish it had gone deeper.

Rating: First Run More about lust than love