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Mr. Smith Gets A Hustler

2002, Movie, NR, 87 mins

Mr. Smith Gets A Hustler: Review

MR. SMITH GETS A HUSTLER
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The title might suggest a tawdry variation on a Frank Capra theme, but Ian McCrudden's adaptation of Matt Swan's stage play is actually a downbeat tale of broken hearts and homes. At four o'clock on a sunny afternoon, a middle-aged suburban businessman (Larry Pine) leaves his family and heads for a bar on the far edge of New York City's West Village, where he does something that might surprise his wife: He picks up an 18-year-old male prostitute (Alex Feldman). The boy's name is Bobby, but he goes by Bobby Blue; the businessman introduces himself as "Mr. Smith." After they retire to Mr. Smith's midtown hotel room, Mr. Smith pays Bobby $600 just to chat about his life. Once Bobby leaves, Mr. Smith trails him to the run-down apartment Bobby shares with his hard drinking mother, Doreen (Anna Thomson), who kids herself into thinking that her son works in a tony restaurant. Mr. Smith turns out to be a repeat customer, but their encounters are never about sex, and the nature of the transaction confuses Bobby. He's not quite sure what Mr. Smith is buying, or what he himself is selling. Once Bobby starts missing dates with his regular customers to spend time with Mr. Smith, Bobby's pimp, Mr. Lapp (Benjamin Hendrickson), puts his foot down and forbids Bobby to see Mr. Smith again. In addition to pimping boys, Mr. Lapp also supplies drugs to street-level dealers like Abe (J.D. Williams), a recovering junkie whose girlfriend (Jodie Baker) finds, then flushes, $6000 worth of Mr. Lapp's dope down the toilet. Abe swears he'll come up with the money, but Mr. Lapp has a better idea: Abe can work it off as the newest addition to his stable. One of Abe's first customers is a sinister character named Jack (Thomas Hildreth) who, like Mr. Smith, isn't interested in sex. Instead, he shows Abe a photo Mr. Smith and offers Abe $600 to find out all he can about the whereabouts of Bobby's shadowy patron. The mystery here — who is Mr. Smith, and what does he want with Bobby? — probably won't come as a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention. Still, the film is an encouraging effort from McCrudden — he manages to avoid the staginess of the recurring two-characters-in-a-hotel-room set-up — and features a standout performance from Williams, who adds an element of honest tragedy to the character of Abe. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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