Fading Gigolo actually has much more about Hasidic Jews than I expected, and a touching core plot about a widow's emotional awakening thanks to the not always being in the stuffy world of Hasidics. But when it's the Woodman and Turturro or most anyone else on screen like his adopted black kids (lol) - and of course there's the whole running gag of beautiful women like Sharon Stone and Sofia Vegara paying to have sex, including a three way, with Vito from Do the Right thing as a middle aged man - it's exceedingly amiable.
Occasionally it's very funny (and I was chuckling and or tittering through much) and in a couple of scenes Allen shows he's a good actor (which, you know, you always expect him to be wisecracking woody and he is but a couple of times he shows that he can reveal restraint, thinking on his feet, other things), but watch him in certain scenes, like when he comes to a realization with a woman character. His mind is working as is his emotions, and it clicks in a way we haven't seen with him in... Deconstructing Harry maybe? It's a good little New York City movie that is better than it has any right to be based on its silly but intrinsically amusing premise, and for a fair chunk of the run time it does take seriously the constructive world of Hasidics in Brooklyn and what happens when Liev Schreiber gets jealous and has to face his own complex emotions.
Occasionally it's very funny (and I was chuckling and or tittering through much) and in a couple of scenes Allen shows he's a good actor (which, you know, you always expect him to be wisecracking woody and he is but a couple of times he shows that he can reveal restraint, thinking on his feet, other things), but watch him in certain scenes, like when he comes to a realization with a woman character. His mind is working as is his emotions, and it clicks in a way we haven't seen with him in... Deconstructing Harry maybe? It's a good little New York City movie that is better than it has any right to be based on its silly but intrinsically amusing premise, and for a fair chunk of the run time it does take seriously the constructive world of Hasidics in Brooklyn and what happens when Liev Schreiber gets jealous and has to face his own complex emotions.