one of those ridiculously shallow movies that finds it smugly cute to depict a worthless, pretty-faced prick taking advantage of women and treating it as a science
Spread (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:33
Fresh:4
Rotten:29
Average Rating:3.7/10
Consensus: Despite occasional detours into surprisingly dark territory, Spread overall is an ineffectual celebration of vacuous Los Angeles high life rather than a deconstruction of it.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong sexual content, nudity and language.
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Aug 14, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $122,948
Synopsis:
Spread tells the story a high-end lothario, Nikki (Ashton Kutcher), who has slept his way into a life of privilege. He shares his secrets with us as he hosts parties and beds scores of women, all...
Spread tells the story a high-end lothario, Nikki (Ashton Kutcher), who has slept his way into a life of privilege. He shares his secrets with us as he hosts parties and beds scores of women, all while living it up at the Hollywood Hills home of a middle-aged female attorney, Samantha (Anne Heche). Everything is going well for Nikki until he meets a gorgeous waitress named Heather (Margarita Levieva), who, unbeknownst to him, is playing the same game that he is. Nikki and Heather find themselves sexually charged by a game of one-upsmanship that has them dining at fine restaurants and crashing posh parties, until the truth of their lives forces them to choose between love and money. Inspired by classics like Shampoo, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and America Gigolo, Spread profiles a sexual grifter and his prey.
Los Angeles serves as a character unto its own in this film, providing slick and luxurious backdrops during Nikki’s high times, and seedy, fleabag motels when Nikki has nowhere else to turn. Nikki runs the gamut of Hollywood dreams and nightmares. The supporting cast is rounded out with gorgeous women like Emily (Rachel Blanchard), who is drawn in by Nikki’s good looks and charm but is left feeling cold and used, and Nikki’s best friend, Harry (Sebastian Stan), who struggles with their co-dependant relationship, always needing to bail Nikki out when he runs out of women to depend on.
Directed by David Mackenzie (Hallam Foe, Young Adam), Spread is an iconic look at the lure of sex, money, and access that Hollywood offers to the beautiful people, and the karmic price that Nikki must ultimately pay to live that lifestyle. --© Anchor Bay
Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Anne Heche, Margarita Levieva, Sebastian Stan
Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Anne Heche, Margarita Levieva, Sebastian Stan, Rachel Blanchard, Maria Conchita Alonso, Sonia Rockwell
Director: David Mackenzie
Director: David Mackenzie
Screenwriter: Jason Dean Hall
Story: Jason Dean Hall, Paul Kolsby
Producer: Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg, Peter Morgan
Composer: John Swihart
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
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Reviews for Spread
Shooting in widescreen while conveying a sharp sense of verticality, [director David] Mackenzie gets us dizzy from the wealth of playthings on display, from swimming pool to private parts.
In certain ways, Spread feels like the adaptation of some lost Bret Easton Ellis novel, before he got into drugs and wild, satiric hyperbole, crossed with a story strand from The Real World. Sorry, that's not a good thing.
Spread's strength lies in its dark, comic undertones but alas, its third act collapses into sentimentality.
The film becomes unintentionally funny when he falls for another hustler (Margarita Levieva) with even less conscience, their grand passion leading to ludicrous behavior and soap-opera dialogue.
Trite but self-important tale of a professional boy-toy in contemporary L.A.,...nothing more than a wallow in old-fashioned melodrama.
The film doesn't quite come off, though lots and lots of clothes do during its randy, random 97 minutes.
There are a few elaborate stedi-cam shots that were pretty outstanding. It's too bad that nothing interesting was happening during these shots.
Mildly engaging with slick cinematography and a sexy cast, but it's often like its protagonist himself: superficial, shallow, lazy and lacking an emotional core.
Although Kutcher deserves some credit for trying to spread his professional wings, it quickly becomes clear that he's in over his head.
A witless homage to Shampoo and American Gigolo that's brain-dead on arrival.
Its formulaic, unconvincing story adds little to the conversation about slack ambition, mutual exploitation and evolving social mores.
A vapid vanity project that swaddles its smugness in the guise of profundity.
Props to Kutcher for going to surprising, painful places. There's something haunted in his portrayal that hits hard and sticks.
The film's biggest problem, though, is that it spends so much time in a vacuous Hollywood demimonde that some of the emptiness inevitably rubs off.
Latest News for Spread
August 13, 2009:
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June 28, 2009:
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