Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
Directed by Mike Mitchell
- comedy
- romance
The story
Deuce Bigalow is a less than attractive, down on his luck aquarium cleaner. One day he wrecks the house of a gigolo and needs quick money to repair it. The only way he can make it is to become a gigolo himself, taking on an unusual mix of female clients. He encounters a couple of problems, though. He falls in love with one of his unusual clients, and a sleazy police officer is hot on his trail.
What it’s like
Bright, flat studio comedy lighting over bland Los Angeles interiors: pastel hotel suites, sunlit pool decks, a fluorescent aquarium and a cramped apartment that all look like they were lit for a sitcom. Camera work stays plain and functional, with straight-on two-shots, quick cutaways and the occasional gag-driven zoom, while the soundtrack leans on late-nineties pop and bouncy synth beds that signal every joke before it lands. The overall texture is glossy, clean and slightly dated, the look of a television set rather than a lived-in world. It plays as loose, bawdy, good-natured silliness with a steady stream of crude jokes, sexual innuendo and sight gags; the sexual content is frequent but comic rather than explicit, and there is some slapstick violence, a few bruising mishaps and a crooked-cop thread that brings mild menace, all cushioned by goofiness. Its vibe is cheerful, sweetly dim and easygoing, best suited to a lazy weekend, a group watch with friends, or a background comedy when you want to laugh without much thought. The emotional arc follows a hapless, awkward man gaining confidence and learning to be himself, with a warm, if predictable, romance underneath. It is for people who enjoy broad, irreverent gags and do not mind a juvenile edge.
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