Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Robert J. Maxwell As Claire Dolan, Katrin Cartlidge is neither stunning nor glamorized. She looks like a rather attractive but otherwise ordinary, thirtyish woman. The whole film is like that. Seeing it is less like watching a film than like watching the comings and goings in a Safeway. Cartlidge, a hooker, is tall, graceful, elegant even. She has thin lips and dark, staring eyes. Her features, her voice, her entire demeanor, is that of a firm algebra teacher, maybe covering up a psychosis. If she lost some weight it wouldn't take much to turn her into one of Moses Soyer's dark-eyed haunted wraiths.When the endoskeleton is revealed, the narrative looks more familiar. A lonely woman with no friends is desolate after her mother's death. She has no family to turn to. Her cousin in Newark is indifferent. She's exploited by all the men she meets except one, D'Onofrio. We've seen the D'Onofrio character before. He's the guy who succors her for a while and is in and out of her life. Sam Shepherd did it more obviously in "Frances." Cartlidge wants to have a child by D'Onofrio, build a home.But he's hesitant. We're not sure exactly why. Maybe it's because she's humped a thousand men before him. Maybe it's because when she orgasms there's no way of telling. Possibly it's because D'Onofrio can visualize what marriage to her would look like. She'd love him to death but she wouldn't make a good conversationalist, she has no wit, and she's demanding. He might spend the rest of his life driving a cab, hanging around, suffering from a bottomless boredom and watching her dote on the kid. If he thought about it, he might even wonder if he's been instrumentalized. After all, pregnancy may be one way to get out of the life.D'Onofrio himself is a beefy, gnarled presence with a high, gentle voice, but my God, he needs a shave an a haircut. He looks like a bum, but then living in Newark can do that to you. It certainly did for my old man. But D'Onofrio doesn't turn out to be very important anyway. After he impregnates her, he and Cartlidge say they love one another but she decides to cut herself off from her previous life and find a legitimate job in Seattle and she winds up glowing with happiness when she sees the fetus on ultrasound.The acting is okay, although it's all so low key that nobody gets to be very galvanic. Colm Meaney comes off best in some ways. All the characters are complex but his is the most difficult to unravel, not to mention that that pinched face is unforgettable. Other comments have ragged the director, Kerrigan, but he struck me as having done a fine job, even if a little artsy. He might do better if he lightened up a bit. After watching this, I had to bleed myself with leeches to relieve the depression.

pyamada After seeing this film I was immediately struck by its similarities to Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman. Certainly, they are very different films, but there is a significant overlap, not just in subject matter and character--Jeanne and Claire--but also in approach. So much of Claire's life passes in silence or repetition that the parallels to Jeanne are fairly strong. Also, viewing Claire in the context of Jeanne at least suggests that having a child will not at all be the answer and solution that Claire is looking for, as motherhood did not make Jeanne Dielman's life wonderful. This film never looks as stark or as imagistic or as metaphorically thought through as Akerman's film, but as it moves along, and despite prosaic and occasionally clumsy scenes, it does attain a visual presence, and aspires to some imagistic displays. When her pimp asserts ruthlessly deterministic views of Claire, they cast a huge shadow on the events left unresolved, and few viewers can come away from this film with anything approaching an upbeat reading; but as a reminder that humans are fragile, frustrating, frustrated and often just aimlessly pathetic, this can stand alone, a stones throw away from a brilliant experiment like Akerman's Jeanne Dielman.

Walton Club I've seen Claire Dolan in Paris in the theatre. It is a very brutal film, but also very powerful. I think that the director is talented, although the ending left me wanting a bit more. It's a very honest film about prostitution, and sometimes chillingly real. I was disturbed by the violence. It is very well done, with great, believable actors.

jeffr-4 One's first impression might be that the characters and scenes in this movie are simply too cold and emotionless. However, a careful study reveals the "seething" emotions going on in each player; from the pimp Cain who "seethes" with a misogynistic disdain of the women working for him to Elton (played with excellence by Vincent D'Onofrio) who seethes with longing to fulfill something greater in life than just being a cab driver (the attempted mugging scene whereafter he breaks down is just superb!). I think that the final two scenes of the movie--one between a "converted", pregnant Claire being approached by a former john, the other between the Cain and Elton with his wife -- excellently display the tormented, soulful emotions of the characters involved in this story.