Watch The Center of the World For Free

Wonderful Movie

I wanted to but couldn't!

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

"I've noticed how sharply the word money resembles the word violence." – Antjie Krog An underrated erotic drama by director Wayne Wang, "The Centre of the World" stars Peter Sarsgaard as Richard, a dot-com millionaire who runs into Florence (Molly Parker), an attractive drummer/stripper."The Centre of the World" initially seems to be indulging in familiar prince-meets-hooker clichés (eg "Pretty Woman"). Wang, though, has other things on his mind. In his hands, both Richard and Florence are alienated by their professions. He hides behind modems and monitors, rarely meeting people face to face, she has strict "no touch" policies. Both prefer to remain at a professional distance, creating avatars or fabricated facades when dealing with others. Significantly, Richard believes "machines" to be the "center of the world", the computer coder believing in a very masculinist, controlling view of people and relations. Florence believes the opposite: women (the feminine, the vagina) are for Florence the "center of the world", around which everything revolves. This assumption grants her, she believes, power over men. Control.Power and control becomes the preoccupation of the film's second third. Here Richard hires Florence for a weekend. He will pay her ten thousand dollars to be his escort. Florence, perceiving herself to be submissive in this relationship, attempts to exert some power of her own. She lays down some rules: no touching, no kissing, no sex and the couple will only be together for a strict late-night window. Richard consents. He's just a passive guy, he tells her, genuinely loves her and has no wish to force her to do anything against his will. Florence doesn't believe him.What constitutes "real" or "simulated" love/lust becomes the preoccupation of the film's final third. Like most films of this ilk, Richard misreads Florence's "performances" and "simulations" as "real affection"; she genuinely likes him, he thinks. Florence, of course, says she doesn't; it was just an act. Richard is left confused. What's original about the film is this: Florence genuinely does love Richard, but will not allow herself to acknowledge or act upon this love. For Florence, the couple's relationship is inherently objectifying, demeaning and social relationships mediated by money, or economic relations themselves, are intrinsically violent. For Florence, Richard's just another boss. Another employer. And as long as he's paying, she's forced into submission and dependency.Scientists and philosophers have spoken for millenia about power-empathy gaps and the dehumanisation engendered by economic relations. But Richard does not see himself in this light. He is a "nice guy" and genuinely wants to "give generously, out of love" (or genuinely believes he does). When Florence rejects him, Richard then vengefully becomes a caricature of what Florenence perceives him to be. He turns her over and violently has sex (rapes?) with her. Ironically, this merely affirms Florence's own prejudices (correct assumptions?)."The Centre of the World" ends with two symbolic scenes. In the first, Florence masturbates before Richard, and explains that "this is what genuine love is". For Florenece, the act is honest and not tainted by the conscious or unconscious power games or depersonalising desires of others. The film then cuts to a strip-club, in which Florence and Richard meet once again. Brilliantly, Wang has each character now fully embrace their "customer"/"provider", "master"/"whore" roles. Richard pays, Florence dances, end of story. Their transaction is impersonal, cold and each now perceives themselves as being in control. Unlike the rest of the film, which is shot in raw, intimate digital photography, these sequences are shot on dreamy celluloid, amplifying the couple's now-explicitly acknowledged games of fantasy.Most of the big auteurs had key films "about" prostitutes/prostitution (Godards's "Vivre Sa Ve", Passolini's "Accatone" and "Salo", Bunuel's "Belle de Jour", Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut", Kiarostami's "Like Someone in Love" etc). Wang's "The Center of the World" is smaller, like a stage-play, but unfolds with the grimy, sexy ambiance of a Abel Ferrara movie ("Go Go Tales"). Sarsgaard and Parker are excellent in their roles.8.9/10 – See Antonioni's "Beyond the Clouds".

It is easy enough I suppose to be cynical of a movie like The Center of the World, a movie about gratuitous sex with no plot to go along, but it would be the wrong way to approach this particular example. Film buffs could easily appreciate the movie as a case of style over substance. Its effectiveness is in its subtlety, never going over the top. What little plot there is may seem contrived, but in fact it has some credibility. I can believe that a story like this could happen in reality, just seldomly. The end result is a surprisingly mature feature, which is definitely not for a shallow minded viewerPorter invites his new friend Florence (a stripper) to come to Vegas with him for short vacation where they can have a few nights of uninterrupted sex. She agrees, but asks him to play by her rules: No sweet talk, no kissing, and no penetration (or something like that). Slowly she starts to fall for him, making it difficult to keep the trip strictly professional.There is never really much of a story to begin with, but this is part of what makes the film feel more natural I suppose. It sort of plays out a bit like Before Sunset, only with nudity in the place of dialogue. The Center of the World, though very mannered and slow, does make some progress, but the film runs out of steam in the last twenty minutes. Actually, 'steam' may be the wrong way to put it. The film moves more like a gondola than a steamer. Having seen his Oscar winning photography for Avatar, cinematographer Mauro Fiore's work on The Centre of the World could not seem more different. This is a striped down, desaturated, deliberately crude and grainy looking production where flash backs are low contrast black and white, and the picture quality increases in grain or unnatural colours when the mood swings. Well, it works, I'll say that much. I haven't seen Las Vegas portrayed this way since the Godfather.Molly Parker maintains a very good screen presence, and in fact she is not simply a body like Sharon Stone in Basic Instict, or Holly Hunter in Crash (David's Cronenbergs film, not the Paul Haggis movie). Florence is definitely a human being, both inside and out. Even the fact that her body is covered in freckles feels realistic. Pretty girls in erotic movies, are almost always spot feel it seems.The ending has nothing in the way of a payoff, but it is not uninteresting. It is one of those scenes which makes you uncertain of whether it is real or a state of mind. I'll leave you to see the film and decide for yourself.

This movie is absurd, vague, slow, abrupt and incomplete. But isn't that how life is? I wont take any sides but one thing is certain that the director has been able to keep it as close to life as any of our lives could be. This movie is not about unreal heroes, super-hot babes & witty dialogs. It has a millionaire loser for a hero and a shy hooker for a heroine, and their love which is not your run of the mill happy ending love story but love which is free from any bias and desires of the flesh. Picture this - A really hot woman, dressed in exotic lingerie acting all horny in front of you, but you don't feel a thing. You don't feel a thing because you want her to undress her heart,her mind,her soul and not her body which you know could be bought by money. The brilliance of this movie lies in the fact that despite he is given what he wanted( at least what he bargained for), he still feels incomplete and we as viewers experience this by ourselves,and that goes for one scene and the actors life as a whole too. While she never lets her guard open(though baring all for him) but finds herself helpless in the face of the goodness and respect which she perhaps never experienced before. She denies its love because she doesn't want to complicate things or probably also realizes that their love is not to be, but the matters have complicated already. A poignant tale of absurd, incomplete love and the absurd, incomplete life of our internet world.* Don't watch it for the sleaze, you might end up erecting your sensitive side instead.

Center of the World is one of those movies that sticks in your mind. Not for the straight-to-video look, and not for the sex scenes (during which Wang mostly focuses on the characters' faces rather than bodies). It's the characters that keep you thinking well after the credits.Richard Longman (Sarsgaard) starts out as a stock character: the nerdy, socially inept computer millionaire who doesn't know how to get a girlfriend. But Sarsgaard, brilliant as usual shows us his many layers. He gets aggressive with video games; he's instinctively caring, assuming a strong "masculine" role (though it's obvious he's not the strong one). He's a big kid who just wants some intimacy, but doesn't understand the basic complexity of human connection. On the other hand, he's seduced by the surface of things--watching too much porn, he really believes that money and a good time will make those sexy porn-queens care about him. In reality doesn't take the time to get to know Florence at all. His rage and frustration confuse him; he's empty and often resorts to money to fix things.Florence (Parker) is a bit of a cipher at first. She's cold, withdrawn, business-like. Yet it's clear that as she gets to know Richard, she likes him. She's conflicted about her role as her feelings change--does she want to sleep with him? does that make her any less of a whore?Many reviewers took sides with one or the other, which I think is a mistake. There's good and bad in both that makes them equally sympathetic. Richard wants intimacy and is a nice goofy guy. But he's also emotionally stunted and more than a little pervy in his desire to buy not just sexual satisfaction, but human connection. He has no right to buy her feelings, but he is allowed to be confused by her lack of them (given their camaraderie)Similarly, Florence is cold and not a little cruel. But she is also conflicted by her feelings, which are somewhere in that gray area of real affection and sexual attraction. Even conflicted, however, but she doesn't make the mistake of thinking that her feelings are love. He bought her body and even of her enjoyment in the weekend, but he can't just buy a relationship. I don't doubt that she wants him, but after (or during) the point when she gives in, she realizes how much of her desire was fantasy. In the end, she makes the only choice she understands.The last few scenes--Richard's pointless, (somewhat stereotypically masculine) act of rage, and Florence's cool expression of her sexual independence--reveal how damaged these characters are. And though the ending is ambiguous, the audience instinctively knows that something is ruined between them.The real trick? Hopelessly, we root for them to heal each other somehow. We buy into the Pretty Woman fantasy, just like they do (Florence less than Richard, but still) We imagine that Florence lets her guard down and learns to care for someone, and Richard tries to connect with a real woman rather than some porn fantasy. But this is the anti-Pretty Woman (which was a travesty of a film). This is reality.Not a perfect film, but very thought-provoking.