RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

tigerfish50 Adrien Brody plays a hard-boiled con-man called Jack who lures Japanese businessmen into assignations with call-girls - and then poses as a vice cop in order to extract bribes. Pam Grier is equally hard-boiled as a NYC detective determined to end his shake-down enterprise. Jack's life gets complicated when he hooks up with Claire, a beautiful graduate student who dismantles Jack's tough exterior to reveal a sensitive soul who dreams of becoming a writer. After Jack resists Claire's efforts to reform him and rejects her, she decides on a dangerous strategy to win him back.In different hands - and with a less talented cast - 'Love The Hard Way' would likely be a horrible mess. In this instance writer/director Peter Sehr invests the story with some genuine originality - while Brody and Charlotte Ayanna give the star-crossed lovers some depth as they struggle to resolve their issues. Like the movie itself, they walk a tightrope between sentimentality and dispassionate realism, and it turns out to be an intriguing journey.

mllelucille This is the best movie I've ever seen. It's so bittersweet. The feel of it was real, I could really imagine it as real life. Brody didn't act like a fake punk.It's so sad because stuff like this does happen all the time. And it's the best movie, I can't stress that enough. It has great acting, even in parts with no lines, the pain or happiness is real. Adrien Brody is a fantastic actor.This is a better movie than Sideways or Closer or any other relationship melodrama. That's personal opinion. But i suggest all go out and see it, you won't be sorry, really.

gypsyroz102 The movie I thought was interesting.I feel that Jack could not love anyone, and no matter how many times he told Claire that she wanted to change him.Claire was a moron. Jack kept telling her that he did not love her and to not get involved with him but she did not listen.The downward spiral that she put herself in after wards by becoming a hooker, was that at this point she was dead inside and felt nothing.Like in the photo booth she looked like a walking corpse. It looked as though she was going through the motions more than actually living her life at that point.

daniel-j-doughty I watched the film to it's semi-awful end and I have to say that it just wasn't worth it. I liked the initial characters. I enjoyed the flirtation of the bad boy and the good girl. I even enjoyed the initial back and forth of I love you-Who are you again-I love you. But when we got to the Claire is a bloody whore part of the film I just fell a bit a apart.Not to mention there are glaring holes in the logic of the film. Just because two guys are friends doesn't mean they'll get assigned to the same kitchen in prison. I mean with persuasion and some chance it might happen, but what happened to their dumbass third guy who pimped Claire out the first time? OK, and here is my finally bit of criticism. I, unlike others, have no problem seeing a good student fall from the pedestal. I personally would have expected drugs to be a part of the fall, but no matter the cause I'm not stunned to watch such a fall. I am however, AMAZED, to watch her be a serious scientist 2 years later. And in fact, to be screwing guys without condoms in NYC for several months before her beau was bagged? All I can say is AIDS AIDS AIDS. When they fast-forwarded two years forward I expected him to show up at her funeral plot, not to meet the successful scientist doing well without him.Decent acting. Decent plot. BIG PLOT HOLES.