Plot
A couple checks into a hotel suite in Las Vegas. Flashbacks show that he's a computer whiz on the verge of becoming a dot-com millionaire. She's a lap dancer at a club. He's depressed, withdrawing from work, missing meetings with investors. He wants a connection, so he offers her $10,000 to spend three nights with him in Vegas. She accepts with conditions: four hours per night of erotic play, and no penetration.
During the days in Vegas, they get to know each other, have fun, and meet a friend of hers, casino dealer Jerri. After the first night, things get complicated. When the three days are over, the stripper makes it clear that she was only there for the money and that the man she spent the time with was just a client. Upset that his feelings aren't reciprocated, he rapes her; she makes no attempt to stop him. She then masturbates for him, achieving orgasm, saying "you want to see real? I'll show you real." The next day he returns home heartbroken.
The movie ends with his return to the strip club to see the woman he fell in love with again. She greets him fondly but interacts with him the way she had when they first met: as a stripper and a client ordering a lap dance.
Because the film is shown in a non-linear format, it is left to the viewer to interpret the ending. One could believe that the film ends with the meeting at the strip club and a chance for the two characters to have a real relationship together, or one could believe that the strip club meeting occurred earlier in time and the film ends with the characters going their separate ways in life.
Reception
Release
The Center of the World was given a limited release in the U.S. on April 20, 2001. [8] [9] It was released without a rating from the MPAA as the filmmakers did not want to edit the film's graphic scenes of nudity and sexuality, which includes both female and male full frontal nudity. [10]
Censorship controversy
A Cincinnati theater owner attracted media attention after allegedly ordering a member of his staff to edit a five-second scene from the film a day before its release. According to Cincinnati CityBeat, Esquire Theater owner Gary Goldman instructed his theater manager and projectionist to cut the scene in which a female stripper (portrayed by adult film actress Alisha Klass) inserts a lollipop into her vagina. [11] [12] [10]
The film's website also generated controversy for featuring an interactive strip club, including a faux online sex chat hosted by Klass. [8]
Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a negative rating of 34% based on 82 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "For all its tease, the movie doesn't have more to say than money can't buy you love". [13] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has an average weighted score of 44 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [14]
Critics compared The Center of the World to films like Last Tango in Paris and 9½ Weeks. [5] Writing for Variety , Dennis Harvey said, "In contrast to most upscale sex drama efforts, Center expends considerable effort on viewing the 'world' from both sides of the usual gender equation." [5] He added the "pic’s tension derives from the ambivalent nature of [Richard and Florence's] relationship", and that Sarsgaard creates a "nuanced" character "as a manchild-ish introvert." [5] Though Harvey commended Wang on drawing credible performances from his leads, he also said the story lacks drive and does not fully explore the characters' psychology. [5]
Harvey also noted the film's "most impressive aspect is its successful pitching of 'the world’s oldest profession' as a problematic but viable personal choice: No one is exploiting Florence, who is far from the usual doomed, drug-addled or airheaded prostie figure seen on screen." [5] Of the film's setting, Harvey said, "Arriving just when the dot-com boom has gone bust, Center’s high-tech nouveau riche angle may strike some viewers as already dated, but in the long run will add a creditable specificity of time/place." [5]
Critic Roger Ebert gave the film a score of 3.5/4 stars and said the characters' psychological mind games with each other are the film's most fascinating aspect. [15] He wrote, "If you understand who the characters are and what they're supposed to represent, the performances are right on the money. Flo is not supposed to be a sexy tart, and Richard is not supposed to be a lustful client. They're sides of the same coin and very much alike." [15]
Molly Parker was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. [16]
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