The Center of the World

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The Center of the World ★★ 2001

Put this one strongly in the love it or hate it category. Richard (Sarsgaard) is a wealthy dot.com geek who offers stripper Florence (Parker) a lot of dough to spend a few days with him in Vegas. She makes some strict rules about what she will and won't do for him—which she promptly breaks. They're both immature and vulnerable and inclined to play humiliating mind games with each other. The sex show turns out to be nothing to get hot and bothered about and the leads give as credible performances as the narrowness of their characters allow. Shot in digital video; the screenwriters used the pseud. “Ellen Benjamin Wong.” 86m/C VHS, DVD . Peter Sarsgaard, Molly Parker, Carla Gugino, Balthazar Getty, Mel Gorham; D: Wayne Wang; W: Wayne Wang; C: Mauro Fiore.

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The Center of the World

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