Love the Hard Way (2003)

Pam Grier steals this film and she's only on screen for five minutes total. She's a whole lot of woman! Just kidding. I liked Love the Hard Way. Here is an attempt at a modern romantic myth, namely the American Virgin. Sure men want their love chick to be pure, to raise sons and daughters that are yours and yours alone, but Adrien Brody is a young thief in a porno world he did not make. After all, he's slept with 200 women. So in between hotel sleaze capers, he beds innocent Columbia biology genius with the big chest, Charlotte Avanna, and our Lothario gets more than he bargained for as his virgin becomes promiscuous in the cause of thievery. Naturally, our hero is stunned, angry, and confused.Charlottes' revenge or strategy to get her man is pretty far fetched, but the director has created an atmosphere of slimy New York thieves on the make with a rap film score and big Cadillac's squealing tires amidst the riff raff, so we sort of believe the unbelievable. It's a nice try in the same vein as Tarentino's script, True Romance, but LTHW is grittier.

The movie I thought was interesting.I feel that Jack could not love anyone, and no matter how many times he told Claire that she wanted to change him.Claire was a moron. Jack kept telling her that he did not love her and to not get involved with him but she did not listen.The downward spiral that she put herself in after wards by becoming a hooker, was that at this point she was dead inside and felt nothing.Like in the photo booth she looked like a walking corpse. It looked as though she was going through the motions more than actually living her life at that point.

I would have given this flick a 10, but there were some plotting issues and areas where things didn't get developed as well as they should have. However, I too was glued to this picture instantly! I saw it last night on cable and confess that I have a THING for Adrien Brody - so as soon as I saw that he way in it I was hooked. He didn't fail me - his performance is stunning. Not only is he really EASY to look at for 2 hours, but you have to watch - you don't want to take your eyes off him. The plot keeps you guessing and the extended cast is also great. We have all known a "bad boy" and with Adrien Brody in the part we can all understand why so many chicks fall so hard for them. Any woman that has had a boy who just "got under her skin" will find themselves mesmerized by Brody's performance. The female lead is gorgeous and does a great job too. The plot and characters are fascinating and you will be pulled in. A powerful flick!

I first saw Love the Hard Way on cable and absolutely loved it, probably because it kinda resembled my relationship with my ex boyfriend. I did not do anything that Claire did, but my ex, was very much like Jack, with sleeping with other girls and lying, but yet was in love with me. My ex did change over time like Jack did, but he only did it by my threatening to leave him. If Claire would have threatened to leave him, I think it would have affected him but not as much as other people. I never changed myself to make my ex love me because I thought there was something wrong with me. Claire did that but only because every one of Jack's friends told her she doesn't belong in that life. After watching the DVD features, which I suggest any fan of this film to do, the ending that I had hoped for... the walk didn't end at the lab... was true. There is a deleted scene of them visiting Charlie in jail, and also there's a commentary on the making of the movie. It's very useful and it makes people who know that Jack changed for Claire and had hope for the two to be together, learn that they ended up together. There was too much of a bond to let that go between them. I praise the director/writer for his work on this movie.