American Gigolo (1980) * * *

Directed by:  Paul Schrader

Starring:  Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo, Nina Van Allandt, Bill Duke

"I like when we kiss and touch.   Because when we make love, that's when you go to work," states Michelle (Hutton), an underloved senator's wife to Julian (Gere), a Beverly Hills gigolo with whom she has fallen in love.    In a sense, she's right.    She knows how he earns his living, yet she can't resist him.    But when is he actually making love to her and not just having sex like he does with countless other women who pay for his services?     His job requires him to be different things for different people, but who is the real Julian?  

I reflect on The Wedding Date (2005), the pleasant romantic comedy in which a woman hires a male escort to accompany her to a wedding to make her ex jealous.     Women swoon over him and the woman asks, "How does it feel to be paid just for being you?"   The man responds, "Who says I'm being me?"   Indeed.    Julian is one who floats around the edges of high society.    He drives around in a new Mercedes, lives in a posh apartment, and has a country club membership, but his profession is hardly a secret.     How could it be when he is seen in the company of women who are twice his age?    He is not a part of the society he craves to be a part of, although he is well-off.    His profession has its price.    He is lonely for love of his own, which he may find in Michelle.     He has fancy art and the latest stereo equipment (for 1980 anyway), but the possessions don't bring him joy.

Julian is also being investigated for the murder of one of his female clients.    The detective on the case (Elizondo) believes he is guilty, but Julian senses he is being framed.     He has made many enemies and his former pimp Leon (Duke) tells him, "You have stepped on too many toes."     Aside from Michelle, he has found few people willing to provide him with an alibi.    The women he services are rich and like their privacy, two things which work against him as he tries to determine who framed him and why.     Assuming that someone even did.  

Strangely, the Julian & Michelle relationship is the least interesting aspect of the movie.     Gere is a natural for the role and this is the genesis for many of his later roles playing seemingly superficial, selfish people who ultimately are redeemed.     He is slick and sleek, fitting perfectly into the role of a lonely gigolo.     Hutton is also good here as a woman who learns to love a seemingly unlovable man, but it seems their relationship occurs because the screenplay requires it to.     There are some sex scenes and some tender, heartfelt scenes, but nothing too moving.    

What is more interesting about American Gigolo is the look into the life of a man who is paid for his body and to provide something to women that they lack.    "One woman hadn't had an orgasm in 10 years.    It took me three hours to get her off, but when I did, I felt like I was a part of something."
Perhaps being a prostitute provides something for Julian as well.     Usually, a cop procedural would be ungainly in a film like this, but it provides suspense.     We see Julian's once idyllic world crashing down around him.     He is paid by women to save them from their lives for at least a few hours.    Who will be there to save him?