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USA 2003
Directed by
Martin Brest
124 minutes
Rated G

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
2 stars

Gigli

Gigli pretty much took out all the Golden Raspberries available in its year of release less, I assume, because it is simply bad (there are much worse films around) than for its unfulfilled pretensions to artistic value. Writer-director Brest who is responsible for films such as the commendable Midnight Run (1988) and Scent Of A Woman (1992) does a kind of sub-Rain Man with hunky Ben Affleck (the Gigli of the title) escorting his mentally-handicapped charge (Justin Bartha) to his gangster boss with Jennifer Lopez as minder. It's a silly concept and neither Affleck nor Lopez make it remotely credible

The main theme of autoerotic machismo (Affleck) versus lesbianism (J-Lo) is played out romantic comedy style (there’s a couple of good jokes about the 'Gigli' surname of Affleck’s character that never go anywhere) against a token background of two-bit gangsterism. At one end of the picture Christopher Walken appears with a wonderful performance as a burnt-out detective and is never seen again whilst at the other end, Al Pacino drops in and out just as quickly with a tasteless flourish of gratuitous violence. The film is not completely awful, it just never becomes more than a concoction of its elements although it does have one of the most drawn-out sappy endings I can recall.

 

 

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