Cheap Half Moon Street (DVD) (Bob Swaim) Price

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Customer Reviews of Half Moon Street

Not much of interest here
Dr. Lauren Slaughter (Sigourney Weaver), an underpaid political analyst, turns to high-end prostitution in order to make ends meet, thereby encountering an influential British politician, Lord Bulbeck (Michael Caine), who is trying to broker a Middle East peace deal. Before long, she is imperiled by an attempt to assassinate Bulbeck and derail the negotiations. <
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>This implausible film doesn't know what it wants to be. Its best moments are the scenes between Weaver and Caine, but unfortunately there's a lot of nonsense to clutter up the plot. Weaver's character is supposed to be intelligent and worldly, yet she hooks under her own name and appears to be surprised later when her unique choice of sideline costs her some credibility in intellectual circles. In addition, it seems unnecessary for the director/writer Bob Swaim and his co-writer Edward Behr to have made her a prostitute at all. Novelist Paul Theroux may have justified it thematically in the original novel, but on the screen it just plays out as a particularly implausible pretext for her to meet Lord Bulbeck. After spending most of the running time developing this relationship, the film concludes with a cliched 15 minutes or so of uninteresting violence, leaving the affair between the two main characters unresolved.

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What was the point?
Not having read the slim Theroux book first (or any of his stuff), but on a Sigourney Weaver high (Aliens came out the same year) I gave this movie a try. Weaver is the ominously named Dr. Slaughter, a brilliant and beautiful is somewhat depraved expert on the study of petroleum exporting countries in the mideast. Eking out a miserable existence in a London flat cursed with perpetually frozen plumbing, Slaughter leanrs to make ends meet when she becomes a high-priced escort. Her two lives - analyst and call-girl - slowly but surely collide by the end. <
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>Theroux fans would appreciate the difficulty of adapting his work - his deceptively simple prose are underappreciated. The flick radiated ominously when its marketing tone seemed to change while the flick was out - a sure sign that the producers remained unsure of what kind of movie it was. HMS is partly a romance - between Slaughter and one of her clients, a british diplomat who mediates issues between countries Slaughter studies on her day job, and is played by Michael Caine; both of Slaughter's personas are below Caine's character. There is also a thriller subplot - was it any coincidence that Slaughter was first drawn to the company that provides escorts for visiting foreigners? <
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>In either case, the flick is a botch, but it took me years until I finally brought myself to read the book to understand why. Though I love Weaver's work, she is miscast here - she's intelligent and ambitious, but lacks the book-Slaughter's inner gamine, a sort of anything-to-get-by spirit that gives her a subconcious sense of overall superiority that drives the story. The movie Slaughter knows she's smart and attractive - unlike her prose incarnation who knows she's more beautiful than her fellow prostitutes, much smarter and more athletic (the compulsive superiority is a necessary emotional shield Slaughter needs to maintain in order to block out the sexual depravities she's forced to rely on when lacking any other way to afford what she needs.) Depriving Slaughter of that fierce if amoral spirit, the flick plods on, only reaching the book's climax by dinty of running time. A Hollywood ending is the finishing touch on this misfire of an adaption, utterly losing the frenzied twilight-zone finish that made the original's end so poignant. If anything, this flick did kick off my minor but enjoyable flirtation with the novels of Theroux.

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For Sigourney Weaver & Michael Caine Fans
This movie got soundly trashed when it was released in 1986 but I really liked it for a couple reasons.

The first, I loved the Paul Theroux book on which it's based. In the book, there are actually two stories. The movie takes its story from "Dr. Slaughter." (The other story, "Doctor DeMarr", is about a twin who foolishly resumes his brother's medical practice after finding him dead from a drug overdose).

The second, I had been really wanting to see Sigourney Weaver in a sexy role after battling the ALIEN and evil spirits in GHOSTBUSTERS. (THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, an excellent film from a few years before with Mel Gibson, was romantic(...)). HALF MOON STREET definitely turned more to the erotic and even scratched the surface of sordid.
That's my only disappointment with the film: the corrosive effects of her double-life are played more situational than emotional. She was smart (...) but the film jumps into suspense and intrigue at the point where she would really have to suffer the inner consequences of her lifestyle. Or lifestyles, as it they were.
Theroux's original story manages to capture it in the final line (not an easy thing to do!).

I'd read an interview with Ms. Weaver and she said she'd wished the script had given her character more of a sense of humor. That would've been a great approach! I can see why they'd nix her idea (keep her character SMART!), but she would've come across less smug about being an escort.

If you like intrigue with hints of eroticism--and Michael Caine, who's always great--then this movie is worth watching.