Love Ranch

Love Ranch is very loosely based on the lives of Joe and Sally Conforte, who in 1971 began running the first legal brothel in the United States. Joe, in Italian immigrant,  began as a cab driver, ferreting soldiers to brothels all around California before moving to Nevada and meeting his wife. Their lives were full of scandal. They spent time in jail for tax evasion, fled the country on more than one occasion, only to return and expand their prostitution businesses right under the nose of the government. Sounds like a pretty good story on it's own, right? Too bad that's not the story we get. Love Ranch jettisons the far more intriguing reality in favor of a tawdry, mediocre love story between an aging madam and a charming brute of a boxer.

Dame Helen Mirren lends her considerable gravitas to the role of Grace Bontempo, a madam of a Reno brothel alongside her husband, Charlie(Joe Pesci). Charlie has the entire town on lockdown. He's a man of big dreams that stretch far beyond selling sex. He's got the entire police force in his pocket, along with a handful of politicians. He's also drawn the ire of more than few religious groups, who want to shut him and is devilish enterprise down. Charlie's biggest dream, however, is to be a boxing promotor. Charlie's got so many ventures goin' that he forgets Grace even exists. It doesn't help that he's surrounded by a dozen sexy, loose women, some of whom are eager to indulge his fantasies. Grace takes it in stride. She loves her husband, faults and all.

That is until finally jumps at the chance to get in on the big fight game, buying the contract of Armanda Bruza(Sergio Peris-Mencheta), broken down lug of a boxer with a Grizzly Adams beard and a wide smile. Asked to manage the Argentinian bruiser, she quickly takes to his awkward flirtations. Despite a 30 year difference in age, the old cougar leaps at the chance to find love away from her uncaring husband, even after Armanda reveals deeper, darker mysteries regarding his past. All this obviously rubs the vengeful Charlie the wrong way, and an ego driven battle to win Grace's heart ensues, with potentially tragic results.

I kept hoping Love Ranch would fully embrace it's seedy, Boogie Nights style premise. You can't have Gina Gershon, Bai Ling, and the sexy Scout Taylor-Compton tarting around and not have a little fun. Director Taylor Hackford(Ray), Mirren's husband, has no interest in that side of it. Whether or not this was a vehicle crafted specifically for Mirren, Mark Jacobson's script leans very heavily on the relationship between Grace and Armando. Honestly, the brothel angle could've been jettisoned altogether.

Only Mirren keeps Love Ranch from going completely off the rails. She shines above the off tempo script, and even manages a few effective scenes with newcomer Peris-Mencheta. He does have a certain likability to him, although his overly gestured style is clearly his way of expressing genuine emotion. He's outclassed most of the time when opposite her, but I daresay he holds up better than Cuba Gooding did in Shadowboxer. Come to think of it, Mirren really digs into these films where she bags the younger dude, doesn't she? I wonder if she's trying to make a point? The real problem is Joe Pesci, an actor I nearly always love but who has been grafting the same Goodfellas persona onto everything he's done since. I'm not sure what he was going for here, but he was like a cross between Tommy Devito and Rhea Perlman. Not a good look.

Love Ranch isn't what I expected it to be. It's neither insightful on the world of legalized prostitution, nor is it a very effective love story. It's a chance for Helen Mirren to prove just how much better she is than everyone else around her, and for that reason alone it might be worth a look. A movie about prostitution with no sex, no eroticism whatsoever. The story of Joe and Sally Conforte is one that deserves to be told, but next time let's hope they stick to the facts.