Review – Spread
With Ashton Kutcher, Anne Heche, and Margarita Levieva – Spread is about a young man who literally lives from woman to woman … rich woman of course. Homeless, no car, practically no money, Ashton Kutcher’s character Nikki gets by in LA by hooking up with older ladies with means to support him. Oh, and he fucks them a lot. Yeah, they definitely drive that point home; he’s pretty much a glorified prostitute.
Despite his completely unlikeable character, I was surprised I didn’t hate this guy as much as I has expected. I mean, not only is he just a horrible leech of a human, but god, he’s whiny. And self-centered. And completely without morals. And yet – not entirely revolting. It definitely helps that over the course of the movie he completely redeems himself.
Now this is not a happy story of the bad boy doing a 180 flip, but by the end of the movie you’re definitely rooting for him. (Well, while also kind of saying, HA karma, bitch, but still.) See, he meets a girl he actually likes, but what does she do for a living? Yeah, hooks up with rich guys. Yeah, karma definitely kicks him in the balls at the end of this movie and it’s both sad and funny. Mostly sad, but definitely not lacking in irony.
Spread was a quirky movie that reminded me of oh so many HBO tv series – highly glamorous but with an extremely gritty and seedy underbelly that they don’t really try to hide that hard. Ashton Kutcher was great in the lead, perfect as the whiny boy who would be SO screwed if his looks went, and he played the character turn-around well. He wasn’t over emotional but I could see that he was changing and how it was affecting him. Anne Heche (looking beautiful) was a wonderful character – she’s his main mark throughout the movie. She knows full well she’s basically got herself a live-in prostitute, and her character is interesting in that she’s a mix of cynic and hopeful. She wants him around because she’s afraid of getting older and being alone, and tends to let herself forget that Nikki’s really only around so he can leech her lifestyle; but at the same time, she calls him on his bullshit enough times, makes sure he knows that she knows what his game really is.
Overall, an interesting movie – not exactly happy, not exactly serious, but a good mix of the two. A great character study if you’re in the mood.