Adrien Brody plays a hard-boiled con-man called Jack who arranges assignations with call-girls for Japanese businessmen - and then poses as a vice cop to extract bribes. Pam Grier is an equally hard-boiled NYC detective determined to end his shake-down business. Jack's life gets complicated when he hooks up with a beautiful student who dismantles his tough exterior to reveal a sensitive soul dreaming of being a writer. After Jack resists the girl's efforts to reform him and rejects her, she decides on a dangerous strategy to win him back.
In different hands 'Love The Hard Way' would be a mess, but writer/director Peter Sehr gives the story an original slant while Brody and Charlotte Ayanna are convincing as the troubled pair trying to resolve their issues. Like the movie itself, they walk a tightrope between sentimentality and realism, and it turns out to be an intriguing journey.
In different hands 'Love The Hard Way' would be a mess, but writer/director Peter Sehr gives the story an original slant while Brody and Charlotte Ayanna are convincing as the troubled pair trying to resolve their issues. Like the movie itself, they walk a tightrope between sentimentality and realism, and it turns out to be an intriguing journey.