The Center of the World

Plot synopsis:
A couple checks into a suite in Las Vegas. In flashbacks we see that he's a computer whiz on the verge of becoming a dot.com millionaire (Peter Sarsgaard), she's a lap dancer at a club (Molly Parker). He's depressed, withdrawing from work, missing meetings with investors. He wants a connection, so he offers her $10,000 to spend three nights with him in Vegas, and she accepts with conditions: four hours per night of erotic play, and no penetration. During the days in Vegas, they get to know each other, have fun, meet a friend of hers, casino dealer Jerri (Carla Gugino); at night, at least after the first night, things seem to get complicated. When the three days are over, the stripper makes it clear that she was only there for the money and that the man she spent the time with was just a client. Upset that the feelings he had weren't mutual he then rapes her, which she makes no attempt to stop. She then masturbates for him, achieving orgasm, after saying "you want to see real? I'll show you real." The next day he returns home heartbroken. The movie ends with his return to the strip club to see the woman he fell in love with again. She greets him fondly but interacts with him the way she did when they first met, as a stripper and a client ordering a lap dance.

Tags: sadist, violence, pornographic, storytelling, flashback

Review:
A digital camera does not a movie make but Wayne Wang didn't rely on avant-garde technique alone when he decided to revisit the basic boy-meets-girl story.
The man is a socially inept but financially successful engineer so typical of our times and his character is developed and portrayed very realistically by Peter Saarsgard in a role very different from what he played in Boys Don't Cry. He's got it down even to the careless dressing and awkward laugh.
Molly Parker is equally convincing as the drummer-by-day-stripper-by-night career woman who has such a cool and invincible air about her that it makes quite an impact in the few occasions when she does let her armor down.It almost seems as if Wang has taken the Hollywood classic Pretty Woman and has decided to deHollywoodize it.
Although they go into into the deal for purely selfish reasons - he desiring an escape from Internet porn and she looking for some extra cash - their encounter, like all good stories, becomes something of a journey of self-discovery.Mention must be made of the attention to detail which makes the setting very believable.
Although Florence and Richard in theory could change the terms of their relationship, their inner feelings and biases restrict them to what is possible within their own way of thinking.
If you are a horny person looking for naked woman with big boobs I think the film will leave you, well, kind of flat.In short, an interesting film for a young guy involved in high-tech and likes to think....
fake) themes of his superb dot-com romantic tragedy much past the opening credits.Wang's use of hand-held camera, grainy 8mm, incandescent lighting color wash, high-definition close ups, and assorted traditional noir and verite style cinematography and direction is a breakthough exploration of digital media.Vegas visitors brave enough to leave their Strip casino/hotel cocoons during daylight hours will surely be struck by the almost surreal difference between how ugly and unglamorous the city is by day and how other-worldly beautiful after dark.
At least in the hands of Wayne Wang, Florence glows with or without the lipstick and latex...I mean neon.Richard's visit to the Venetian Casino/Hotel near the end of the movie completes the tragic romantic (city) metaphor.
The brilliance of this movie lies in the fact that despite he is given what he wanted( at least what he bargained for), he still feels incomplete and we as viewers experience this by ourselves,and that goes for one scene and the actors life as a whole too.
"Center of the World" is a very well photographed drama and is highly worth a viewing, but has several flaws."Center of the World", an almost mirror image of "Leaving Las Vegas" (better film), is about a computer whiz named Richard's (Peter Sarsgaard) three day escape from his everyday life to Las Vegas with a stripper named Florence (the lovely Molly Parker), who he pays to go with him under the conditions they won't have sex.But Richard's promise eventually gets the best of him and he begins to obsess about having the best sex of his life with Florence.
With each tease, the characters' chemistry builds up and we begin to wonder if Richard and Florence are actually falling in love."Center of the World" has beautiful cinematography.
The entire film was shot on tape and a few scenes are in one of the best shades of black and white I've ever scene.Peter Sarsgaard is very good as the naive but extremely polite computer whiz and Molly Parker (although very better in "Pure") pours herself into the tough role of Florence almost as good as Jennifer Connely portrayed Marion in "Requiem for a Dream".The film does have several flaws though.
It has far too many sex scenes (often gratuitous), the chemistry between the two characters blooms and dies at any given time and the surprise ending is almost ruined by two scenes directly after the surprise (you'll have to see for yourself)."Center of the World" is a good film worth watching once..
This time the protagonist is a rich internet geek (Peter Sarsgaard) who literally contracts with a rock and roll drummer and part-time stripper (Molly (Parker) for a sexual get-away in Las Vegas.
Director Wayne Wang has either dated a dancer or fell in love with one because he displays the power of women, they make the rules, end of story.
I found the movie to be well made and the story pretty good, and holding it all together was a constant feeling of "I can believe this."There was very little in the movie that seems unreal to me.As the first comment says, more movies should be made like this - an intelligent exploration of how we feel about sex, love, feelings, desire, etc..
He didn't shoot on digital video to save money; he did it for the look, which is somewhat pixilated, distancing, with a sort of tv-like unreality.Is the movie perfect?
In the end it feels safer to keep themselves emotionally disconnected, to keep relationships on the level of internet porn or chat rooms, or in the form of a financial transaction or lap dance.If you can't see beyond the sex in the movie, whether you're offended or titillated by it, you almost certainly won't like the film.
The movie deals with the question how real these relations can be and where the real world and real emotions fit into this artificiality.This aspect is enhanced by the use of different ways of filming.
At other times the makers switch to a style of filming whose hand-held camera footage is reminiscent of documentaries and reality shows and whose graininess reminds us of home movies.
I would also shed a tear if she ever got married, unlike others, who probably get married every year to spend the big money they get.Center of The World (rented with the vastly different Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventures) is about Richard (Peter Sarsgaard), a dot-com millionaire who has spent the last two years as a recluse in front of a computer, trying to shake off the pain of a dissolved relationship.
So they go to the greatest city in the world, get the best room at New York New York, and the viewer sees these two in a "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" style movie, where they let out their secrets and sexual fantasies for everyone to see.We see the two of them slowly falling into love, but there seems to be a barrier that prevents them from being together, and that barrier comes into play during their three days together.Wayne Wang and his writers deliver a superb script, and Parker and Sarsgaard deliver awesome performances.
It was wonderful to view an intelligent take on the dynamics of the liaison between Richard (the dot com millionaire - Peter Sarsgaard) and Florence (the lap dancer - Molly Parker).
The fluctuating emotions and overwrought hidden passion between this pairing is what truly captivates the audience in a way so rarely done in a film where sex is concerned.We saw this movie at a midnight showing in NY.
Unfortunately the group of 20 friends seemed to revert enmasse to a group of juvenile school children as they giggled during two of the most powerful moments of the film - Richard when he describes having sex and when Florence masturbates herself as a demonstration of her re- asserting her power.Sarsgaard and Parker deserve extra kudos for taking the risk and accepting these roles and then for rising to the challenge and totally immersing the audience into these three days of their lives.
The audience will probably  split three ways:  Those that are going to be disappointed because it isn't `Pretty Woman', those that will be disappointed that it isn't `sexier', and those careful viewers that will realize the film is neither Hollywood romance nor full-on pornography.The Center of the World is about human contact as commerce.
Richard through the internet company he works for, and Florence at Pandora's Box, the strip club where she sells carefully controlled human contact for `$60.00 for two songs.'   Ironically, both characters are cut off from what most people would consider normal contact by the fact that they `sell' a specialized form of it.
Florence by the rules of her job and Richard by the multiple computers screens he cannot seem to get away from.The characters are somewhat comfortable in their respective situations until they leave the controlled environments with which they have set up for themselves and with which they are familiar.
Florence certainly doesn't want it from someone who pays to see her naked body and Richard seems ill equipped to handle even a normal relationship, let alone one that starts with $10,000.00 cash changing hands.Viewers looking for a fairytale will be just as disappointed as those looking for hardcore porn.
The "film" revolves around two of the most vacuous characters I have ever had the displeasure of watching on screen: Richard, a socially retarded software millionaire who pays Florence, an empty headed but street-wise stripper, ten thousand dollars to accompany him to Las Vegas for a weekend.
It is easy enough I suppose to be cynical of a movie like The Center of the World, a movie about gratuitous sex with no plot to go along, but it would be the wrong way to approach this particular example.
The end result is a surprisingly mature feature, which is definitely not for a shallow minded viewerPorter invites his new friend Florence (a stripper) to come to Vegas with him for short vacation where they can have a few nights of uninterrupted sex.
I haven't seen Las Vegas portrayed this way since the Godfather.Molly Parker maintains a very good screen presence, and in fact she is not simply a body like Sharon Stone in Basic Instict, or Holly Hunter in Crash (David's Cronenbergs film, not the Paul Haggis movie).
The elements are there to make a good movie, but Wayne Wang seems to be unable to put the magic touch to it.Molly Parker and Peter Sarsgaard are doing a fine job as Flo and Richard.You can easily skip this one.Out of 100, I gave it 73.
He meets Florence (Molly Parker, incredibly beautiful and sexy  I watched many movies where she performed secondary roles and I never noticed how gorgeous she is!), a stripper in profession who plays drums as a hobby.
I found this movie great: the two characters are very well explained and the viewer can understand the situation: a lonely guy like Richard certainly would fall with Florence after a close contact like they have.
Fortunately Wayne Wang did not use the alternative ends showed on DVD, where Florence returns to Richard the money he spent with her and her girlfriend Jerry .
For those who LIKE the slow dramas and don't mind nudity and implied sex, this is a decent idea of putting a computer geek looking for love and a below-average stripper looking for money together.
It really feels good to see a great movie and last night I saw the Best Film of the Year (so far).
The film doesn't go the usual route, feelings are not allowed, this movie is about the Battle of the Sexes.
The film was done very boldly, it was shot on DV and until now I didn't like the results but this movie once again, changes my mind about some topics.
Shot with a malfunctioning hand-held digital camera.Okay, the producers and director will insist this was a study in color, with mood-enhancing black-and-white, blah, blah, blah, ad infinitum through the drudgery of the commentary I just waded through, ooh horrors why do I do these things to myself?You shoot a picture Man Loves Woman, and you feel the need to go extremely artistic and we have to sit and watch as the color spectrum goes slightly haywire like on a broken TV set and you think it's high art?The joke is on the reviewers who are simply wowed by this.
go look for yourself: so, much like the website for 'center of the world', I was left wanting more; then again perhaps that is the point of it all, where the viewer is made to feel like the male character in the film - there is a limit to what he can get.
if it's a sex/art film you are looking for, you won't find it in 'the center of the world'.
canadian directors are masters at this, so try atom egoyan's 'exotica' (with similar themes of man's fixation with a stripper), 'kissed' by lynne stopkewich (also with molly parker) or david cronenberg's 'crash' (a fantastic and very misunderstood film about the possible future of sex in a society where every pleasure has been over-exploited) instead.
The film structure is full of flashbacks in black and white that reconstruct the first meeting of the characters in a sort of convoluted manner, becoming tiresome as the movie advances.There are few strong moments, like the almost cameo by Carla Gugino as a damaged woman that end up not paying off.
While I would have never thought it possible that a film could scrape the depths of horrible movie-making to the degree that Showgirls did, this film surpasses even that little masterpiece in every facet.Do yourself a favor and rent some soft-porn instead: at least you'll be spared the agony of expecting a plot - any plot - and having to witness two of the most contrived and ridiculous acting performances to date.I read a few past user reviews, and am frankly just flabbergastedthat this could make anyone's "Best 5 Films of the Year List." I can pick 5 better Stallone films...and I'm no "Rocky" fan.Save the $8 or whatever it is and spend it on gas (3 gallons these days?) to go see a real film, "Memento." I understand it's not playing everywhere, but you'll be happy you took the ride..
This movie (excuse me, film) strives to be "edgy" with lots of "intense" sex scenes.
Whoever wrote those dialogues and plot is a loser who never had a meaningful relationship with anyone, or hopefully had one but absolutely no writing talent whatsoever.The camera work is a pathetic attempt at presenting the movie as an 'art film', 'independent' or whatever is supposed to give it some value.
Wang made these beautiful enough people look really really bad, and to me, this movie is the "A #1" example for why a film should not be shot in digital, at least not this way.
I thought The Center of the World was well-acted; I felt empathy for the two main characters, Richard and Florence.
First, I had a really hard time believing that the characters of Richard and Florence, who are portrayed as very emotionally literate people, would ever get involved in such a vacuous and emotionally unsatisfying situation.
Perhaps Wayne Wang, Miranda July, and the other writers of this film's script knew people involved in a similar "relationship" as Richard and Florence.
As I see it, a great many people involved in these activities are doing so because of terribly painful childhood wounds (i.e. sexual abuse, huge abandonment issues, family shaming)and to portray, nay, to glorify Richard and Florence's characters in such a "clean erotic" way misrepresents to the reality of the strip/porn world.
Having taught high school for three years and knowing how films such as this distort teenagers' perceptions of reality, I can just hear my fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old students talking about how "cool" this film is, how like "real life" Richard and Florence are.
Make sure it plays at respected theaters (I mean "theatres") like the Angelica in NY -- that way Roger Ebert will think it is an art film and give it Two Thumbs UpStep 6: Steal the basic plot for another, better made movie...
Not for the straight-to-video look, and not for the sex scenes (during which Wang mostly focuses on the characters' faces rather than bodies).
In the end, she makes the only choice she understands.The last few scenes--Richard's pointless, (somewhat stereotypically masculine) act of rage, and Florence's cool expression of her sexual independence--reveal how damaged these characters are.
The center of the film is Parkers performance as Florence.
At one point in the film Florence is masturbating and I think the scene shows that whatever sexual pleasure she receives will be on her terms, when she allows it.
The irony of the film is that Richard is a very successful man with a computer company making lots of money but when it comes to relationships, he's a failure.
"I've noticed how sharply the word money resembles the word violence." – Antjie Krog An underrated erotic drama by director Wayne Wang, "The Centre of the World" stars Peter Sarsgaard as Richard, a dot-com millionaire who runs into Florence (Molly Parker), an attractive drummer/stripper."The Centre of the World" initially seems to be indulging in familiar prince-meets-hooker clichés (eg "Pretty Woman").
Like most films of this ilk, Richard misreads Florence's "performances" and "simulations" as "real affection"; she genuinely likes him, he thinks.
The film then cuts to a strip-club, in which Florence and Richard meet once again.
Even in the movies that deal with sex as one of their main subjects, still most of the deeper messages are just plainly given by actors in their dialogs or other (non-sexual) scenes.Center Of The World is not like that.
I hope for a chance that people who make movies will start giving more attention to what is actually happening in the sex scenes they film, and more importantly HOW it happens.
While in the end Richard and Florence actually have sex, at the same time the movie goes out of its way to make sure the viewer sees how indifferent Florence actually is and basically hates the whole thing.
that can never end well.There is more entertainment to be found in reading the name "Wayne Wang" over and over than watching this film..