Showgirls (1995) Dir: Paul Verhoeven
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Very rarely does a film leave me as divided as this one did. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, this 1995 drama depicts the extravagant yet difficult life of Las Vegas showgirls. This sounds like, and is, a great concept for a film.
The problem comes from two things: firstly, that the film's quality seems to go from brilliant to dire almost scene by scene, and secondly, that there's literally only one likeable character in the entire story, and it's not the protagonist.
The story relies heavily on the dance routines to give the film any pace or snap. The dialogue is messy, and the characters even more so.
Elizabeth Berkley gives a solid performance as the film's protagonist, but the way her character is written makes her so unlikeable.
The only character I liked was played by Gina Ravera, who gave a really strong shoeing in her supporting role. Her character, and I can't stress this enough, deserved so much better.
Gina Gershon didn't impress me much, if I'm honest. Although, I will say that the writing of her role definitely doesn't help her. It's honestly laughable at times, and Gershon can only do so much to stop it being hilariously bad.
Another actor I wasn't impressed by was Glenn Plummer. More poor writing and a character that needed a more charismatic actor behind it, meant that Plummer never stood much of a chance.
However, by far the most laughably bad performance and character of the film belongs to Kyle MacLachlan, whose character is so jarringly ridiculous that I thought I was watching some kind of parody work at times. Truly terrible.
Finally, I'll mention some more noteworthy cast members; Robert Davi, Greg Travis and Rena Riffel.
Overall, unlikeable characters and woeful writing weigh down some well choreographed dance routines and potentially good scenes. This film had both brilliance and mediocrity in abundance, which lead to it feeling frustratingly inconsistent.
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