A computer programmer offers a nude dancer $10,000 to go to Las Vegas and hang out with him, incidentally performing for him in the privacy of their hotel suite. No touching, she stipulates (and implicitly, no emotional involvement). Director Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club, Smoke, Blue in the Face) co-wrote this 2001 tale of two lonely, isolated people ironically employed in "communications" professions -- both hungry to connect, yet terrified to do so. There's a lot of nudity, especially for Parker, who turns in a brave and admirable performance of fragile strength and ambivalence. Sarsgaard has less to do, but his role sharply differs from the violent and macho boyfriend/rapist he played in "Boys Don't Cry." Mel Gorham has some brief, fiery scenes as a former "associate" of Parker's, and Pat Morita of the Karate Kid movies has a brief cameo as a taxi driver. A challenging movie that raises discomfiting issues, though a little coldly.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
