Verdict
Summary
Whore is a pretty stark and depressing little film from Ken Russell, but it also miraculously has a heart and soul thanks to its star’s performance, which is both very “theatrical” and “cinematic” at the same time. The script is adapted from a stage play, and it simply can’t escape that design, but that’s fine and gives the movie its distinct personality. It has a stagey voice, and yet it feels inherently cinematic thanks to director Russell’s camera movements and its ingrained Los Angeles textures.
Plot:
A Los Angeles prostitute tells her story.
Review:
Liz (Theresa Russell) is an attractive 30-something woman who walks the streets of Los Angeles looking for her next (hopefully safe) trick. She wasn’t always a hooker: At one point, she met a guy in a bar, fell in love with him, married the guy, and had a baby with him, but like most things in her life, it all fell apart when she was abused and she walked out on him, leaving her son in the care of her mother. Waiting tables in a greasy spoon, she fell into prostitution pretty much by accident when a guy gave her a ridiculous tip to have sex with him after closing. Since she needed the money, she agreed, and just like that she fell into a habit of doing the same thing night after night. She took a pimp who first treated her really well but her perception and level of intelligence only reaches so high, and so she became a victim of another man who abused her and used her to turn tricks every night. And now, Liz is on the run on the streets, hoping to avoid her sadistic pimp and navigating sketchy clients on a nightly basis, sometimes just narrowly avoiding vicious rape (if she’s lucky) or even death. Liz stares into the camera and bluntly recounts her experiences with the viewer. She describes in vivid detail the ugly monotony of her profession and her sad life, crying when she tells us she sometimes looks on from a distance at the playground where her son plays, realizing that she’ll likely never be his mother in the way he deserves. She also tells us the weird kinks of some of her clients, and in some cases she has just enough self-awareness to understand that she’s growing old on the streets as a hooker and that this will probably be her life for the foreseeable future … if she can survive her pimp who is hunting for her.
Whore is a pretty stark and depressing little film from Ken Russell, but it also miraculously has a heart and soul thanks to its star’s performance, which is both very “theatrical” and “cinematic” at the same time. The script is adapted from a stage play, and it simply can’t escape that design, but that’s fine and gives the movie its distinct personality. It has a stagey voice, and yet it feels inherently cinematic thanks to director Russell’s camera movements and its ingrained Los Angeles textures. I lived in the Los Angeles area during the ’80s and early ’90s and I really saw “home” in a lot of ways in this film. It shot in downtown L.A. and in and around the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and Westwood, and it brought the era back to me in vivid color, so I really appreciated that. Star Russell really gives a bold and fearless performance here, and the movie lives and dies by her.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray release of Whore looks really solid in a clear and sharp high definition transfer. The NC-17 version is offered here, and includes an audio commentary by Tim Lucas, an interview with the co-screenwriter, the trailer, and a little video feature that compares the versions that have been made available. This is part of the “Kino Cult” line, numbered 25 on the spine.”
