BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

HillstreetBunz I sought this movie out on DVD because it's cinema release was negligible, and anything with Helen Mirren will have some merit. I can only imagine it's almost invisible release was due to the inability of the youthful marketeers to easily identify the box in which to place it, romance, thriller, gangster flic? For those of us who don't care about such trite labels, this is an interesting movie, characters with some depth, it's not really about goodies or baddies, or even right or wrong, it's a story, with some romance, some humour, some sex, some drama, great performances from stalwarts and what should have been a launch pad to international stardom for the young Spaniard...fear not Sergio, we will see you again. I liked it a lot and really recommend it to people who enjoy films about other people rather than machines and/or concepts!

merklekranz The thing that stands out immediately in "Love Ranch" is not the girls, not the 1970s clothes, but the amazing photography. Almost every outdoor scene could be the vista for a postcard. The story itself seems to drag in places, and then suddenly rush to a conclusion, with narration to tidy up the ending. The acting by Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci is terrific as expected, and a small scene with Harve Presnell a pleasant surprise. What is not a surprise is the tale of the Mustang Ranch on which the movie is based. It's tough to overcome the familiarity of a story often aired on cable over the last two decades. - MERK

jotix100 Something went wrong with this Taylor Hackford film which showed on cable recently. It boasts a good cast and it is a story based on a true story. The right elements should have come together to make this entry worth watching. The culprit seems to lie in the screenplay written by Mark Jacobson, which does not take advantage of the subject he was treating.The story of Grace and Charley Bontempo, the owners of the brothel in the Nevada desert, lent itself for a lot more than comes out in the story. The owners had apparently a good relationship, although it becomes apparent there was no love left between them as the story begins. Charley had been cheating on Grace with anyone of the prostitutes in the place. Grace, the brain behind the business, finds out about the cancer she had to deal with, something that evidently has an effect on her dealings with their business.Charley, a first class wheeler-dealer, sees an opportunity when Armando Bruza, an Argentine boxer, he discovers with a potential to go places. Grace did not appreciate that Bruza will move to the Love Motel, as Charley wants. Bruza develops an affection for the older woman, who takes the plunge, falling in love with the boxer, something that will lead into fatal consequences.The main reason for watching "Love Ranch" is Helen Mirren's performance. She makes a case for Grace, the jaded madam of the house of ill repute. At times she seems not to be comfortable with her character, the way the script asks her to play her. Joe Pesci does his routine of being a wise guy. It is fun to watch him utter those four letter words he spices his vocabulary with. Sergio Peris-Mencheta is Bruza, the boxer who fell for the older woman. Gina Gershon does not have much to do.

vitaleralphlouis The focus is in the wrong place. Who cares about the owners. The real stories are what went on between the girls and their customers. There's where the action, emotion and conflicts happen. So many, and so interesting, I wrote a novel about it all.Incidentally, the summary says the ranch was closed by the IRS. True and double-true. The IRS first closed the place in 1995, for a few days; then it was re-opened under IRS management. The IRS likes to deny they actually operated a brothel for profit, but the eyewitnesses and newspaper accounts say otherwise. The IRS actions were shameless. They actually confiscated the personal effects (clothing, teddy bears, hairbrushes, etc) belonging to the girls who worked there, sold these for chump change. This despite the fact that their claim was against the owners, not the girls. CBS News and other coverage of the closing was laughable. It showed girls saying they were taking up sewing et cetera. In fact, the adjoining brothel (0.1 miles away) suddenly had an increase of dozens of new girls who simply moved to a new location.When the property was auctioned, a lone bidder got the property for 10 cents on the dollar and he secretly represented the original owners. Re-opened without IRS, they operated for a few years until the second and final IRS closing. Old Joe ought to have paid his taxes.There are still legal brothels in Nevada, but sharp increases in prices has taken away the casual fun atmosphere and customers are few and far between. Love Ranch? Not anymore.