Whore (1991)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Powerful

Absolutely Fantastic

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Uneducated prostitute Liz (Theresa Russell) works the L.A. streets. She is beaten up by one bad trick. She recalls various Johns. She married the local alcoholic hunk. They have a son together. She leaves her drunken husband with her son to her mother. As a waitress, she is introduced to prostitution.Breaking down the fourth wall is an interesting style. The constant unceasing nature does wear thin after awhile especially with Russell's voice in this character. This is more of a monologue. The minimalist style is more due to the lack of budget. Director Ken Russell considers this his anti-'Pretty Woman'. He has certainly drop kicked Pretty Woman and raped her from behind. It is a fascinating take but not a completely successful one.

Theresa Russell, playing the eponymous streetwalker in a nameless American city, bares all for the camera, including her limitations as an actress. Most of the near-plot less film is a confessional monologue, with Russell looking straight into the camera and sharing her trade secrets, but she hasn't the depth of talent to carry what amounts to a one-woman show, giving a flat performance to complement the empty, inadequate script.From all the artificial banter it shouldn't be surprising to learn that the film was adapted from a stage play, the name of which ('Bondage') is even more blunt and specific than the (original) title of the screen version. But what should have been an unflinching report on the use and abuse of women becomes, instead, a strictly skin-deep beginner's guide to the art of prostitution, which never rises above the obvious clichés. It might have been director Ken Russell's answer to the trite platitudes of 'Pretty Woman', but all the raw squalor and explicit language is too clinical to provide any real shock value. The film seems to have been made by a dirty old man who no longer has the ability to create an entertaining scandal.

Good old Ken Russell … The glorious days of "Savage Messiah" and "The Devils" were obviously long gone in the early 90's, but still he was always up for directing a controversial and provocative motion picture. I read in several articles and interviews that "Whore" was primarily intended as a harsh and confronting response to the Julia Roberts comedy "Pretty Woman"; which depicts prostitution as a carefree and happy happy joy joy profession. Of course everybody already knows that the job of a prostitute includes more than just sleeping with Richard Gere, but Russell nonetheless insisted on dedicating a full movie based on this reality lesson. "Whore" is one part gripping docudrama and one part clichéd venting, but the overall impression it leaves is a positive and lasting one. Theresa Russell is excellent as Liz and, since she speaks most of her monologues straight into a camera, the viewer becomes irreversibly involved in her daily routines of abuse, humiliation, danger, fear, indescribably odd fetishes and general bullying. Whilst on the constant lookout for her relentless pimp, Liz lectures about what she does and doesn't tolerate from customers, tells lovely anecdotes about her wackiest clients (like an elderly man who only gets off when she hits him with his own cane!) and openly mentions the rookie mistakes that gradually turned her into the nihilistic and cynic woman she is now. Multiple sequences are, unfortunately, dreadful clichés (like a failed marriage and the cute son Liz was forced to abandon) or just plain weird (the reoccurring meetings with the semi-spiritual Rasta guy). Strangely enough – but perhaps typical for Ken Russell – our director interlards the most involving moments of sincere human tenderness with revolting footage of the pimp also facing the camera and proudly talking about his spirit of enterprise and generally discriminating opinion on women. "Whore" tends to get a bit monotonous and repetitive, but thankfully it's not too long, and occasionally it too obviously shows the script is adapted from a stage play. And perhaps the biggest problem of the film might be that the subject matter actually TOO realistic to be a genuine Russell success formula. Those who're familiar with the man's repertoire know that he's at his absolute finest when adding grotesquely surreal plot material and visually imaginative gimmicks to a rudimentary concept. The everyday life of a prostitute simply doesn't lend itself to a lot of creative and artsy expanding, and for Russell this is definitely a shortcoming. Notwithstanding the brutal approach and rather repellent promotional elements (the blunt title, the tagline "This is no bedtime story"), "Whore" is a unique and compelling drama worth tracking down.

This is really more of a documentary then a film. I caught it on tv my accident and sat down to watch. I can't say I "liked" this-I have read some reviews and don't know how it could be regarded as a comedy-this is pretty intense stuff. It is a very unpleasant movie to watch and I didn't enjoy it. However I have to give the movie makers credit for making this as well as Teresa Russell for starring in it-I can't see this ever appealing to the masses but it was a mjaor example of quite the daring way of making movies. This tells of what prostitution is about in a way that's so different then Pretty Woman it makes Pretty woman seem laughable. Although I disliked this movie and thought parts of it could have been done better it sure is alot more realistic then Pretty Woman although most people don't even know of its existance.