I watched this at home on DVD from my public library. My wife chose not to watch it, not her kind of comedy. It almost has a Woody Allen sensibility to it.
The story itself is being told by Imogen Poots (British actress using her best OTT fake Brooklyn accent) as Isabella Patterson. She is well-dressed and well-spoken and in the present time doing very well. But it hasn't always been that way, as we see in flashbacks that actually make up the movie.
She was an aspiring actress who still lived with her constantly quarreling parents, and she worked as a call girl to earn money to support herself and to help her parents. It was just a job to her.
Owen Wilson is a director, Arnold Albertson. He has traveled to New York to prepare for directing a new stage play, it will star his wife who is traveling over a day or two later with the kids. So alone in his hotel room Arnold calls an escort service and asks for 'Glo-stick', the pseudo that Isabella uses. They have a good time, he takes her out to dinner, they come back and sleep together, then he asks her to quit doing what she does, and he says he will give her $30,000 if she will quit. The money will help her start fresh and do something she wants with her life.
So we have a guy who gets horny, cheats on his wife, but has a generous streak that makes him want to help young ladies have a better life. An interesting concept and it is carried forward in this movie in a very entertaining way.
The cast is very good, the writing is inventive and witty, and as the story unfolds a number of interesting entanglements surface. It does not attempt to judge who might be right or who might be wrong, just glimpses into the lives of these interesting characters.
SPOILERS: The spit first hits the fan when the next day Isabella shows up to audition for a part in the play Arnold is directing and his wife is starring in. Of course he doesn't want her there, it would be awkward and dangerous for him but she is great and has to have the part. In other scenes Arnold happens upon several other young ladies who had been similarly helped with gifts of $30,000 to get fresh starts and each one thanks him for saving them. Of course his wife finds out and in the end Isabella is the only one who comes out smelling good in this whole mess.
The story itself is being told by Imogen Poots (British actress using her best OTT fake Brooklyn accent) as Isabella Patterson. She is well-dressed and well-spoken and in the present time doing very well. But it hasn't always been that way, as we see in flashbacks that actually make up the movie.
She was an aspiring actress who still lived with her constantly quarreling parents, and she worked as a call girl to earn money to support herself and to help her parents. It was just a job to her.
Owen Wilson is a director, Arnold Albertson. He has traveled to New York to prepare for directing a new stage play, it will star his wife who is traveling over a day or two later with the kids. So alone in his hotel room Arnold calls an escort service and asks for 'Glo-stick', the pseudo that Isabella uses. They have a good time, he takes her out to dinner, they come back and sleep together, then he asks her to quit doing what she does, and he says he will give her $30,000 if she will quit. The money will help her start fresh and do something she wants with her life.
So we have a guy who gets horny, cheats on his wife, but has a generous streak that makes him want to help young ladies have a better life. An interesting concept and it is carried forward in this movie in a very entertaining way.
The cast is very good, the writing is inventive and witty, and as the story unfolds a number of interesting entanglements surface. It does not attempt to judge who might be right or who might be wrong, just glimpses into the lives of these interesting characters.
SPOILERS: The spit first hits the fan when the next day Isabella shows up to audition for a part in the play Arnold is directing and his wife is starring in. Of course he doesn't want her there, it would be awkward and dangerous for him but she is great and has to have the part. In other scenes Arnold happens upon several other young ladies who had been similarly helped with gifts of $30,000 to get fresh starts and each one thanks him for saving them. Of course his wife finds out and in the end Isabella is the only one who comes out smelling good in this whole mess.