American Gigolo (1980)

A young Richard Gere plays Richard Gere, or Julian, a male escort if you prefer, who is framed for the murder of an ex-client. So far, so Gere. Desperate to clear his name, he's in a spot of bother with no strong alibi, and must enlist the help of Michelle; a women he has recently fallen for. Unfortunately for Julian, she also happens to be the wife of a state senator. Director Paul Schrader is probably better known for his writing credits (Taxi Driver [1976] and Raging Bull [1980] to name but two) but he pulls off an enjoyable neo-noir thriller here; there are shades of Basic Instinct (1992) as well as other Gere romps, most notably Internal Affairs (1990). It's a script that you could also imagine Harrison Ford or Michael Douglas playing the lead role in, but that does a disservice to Gere. He's a fine actor, and pulls off Julian with aplomb in one of his earliest roles. Schrader doesn't pull punches, Gere is at the scene of the murder several hours previously, asked to have consensual sado-masochistic sex with the victim by her husband as part of his controversial job. It doesn't take a genius to work out where the film is headed in terms of who's setting Julian up, but his relationship with Michelle (a solid turn from Lauren Hutton) is thoroughly believable, and at the end of the film, without giving too much away, you certainly aren't rolling your eyes in a disgusted fashion. Well I wasn't anyway. 7.1/10