Spread - Movie review

Spread
A; Drama
Dir: David MacKenzie
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Anne Heche, Margarita Levieva, Sebastian Stan, Rachel Blanchard, and Sonia Rockwell
Rating:u00a0'

What's it about: Besides 'Punk'ing people and marrying a cougar, Ashton Kutcher hasn't done much in the past few years. In a somewhat semi-autobiographicalu00a0 tale, Kutcher plays Nikki, a chick magnet who transcends all ages and renders all sorts of services to women willing to take care of his basic needs. Somewhere in between being a gigolo and a playboy, Nikki falls for Heather (Levieva) -- a waitress who's his mirror image except with different genitals. The two keep trying not to let go of their masks and images in order to preserve what they know best -- being whores.

What's hot: Kutcher does a decent job of playing someone who's lost and confused between those satin sheets and dark alleys. His face has the quality of being vulnerable and strong at the same time. Anne Heche who plays the rich corporate lawyer getting jiggy with Kutcher also puts up a sincere act.

What's not: There's this ever-looming sense of shallowness throughout the film. You hope for the fake act to drop any moment and for something real will follow. But for the most part, we see Kutcher make out with Heche in different positions, then sit down, ponder and resume the sex act. Nothing much happens till he bumps into Levieva. Even then the tempo refuses to pick up, and the two pretend to flirt under the pretext of having boring conversations. Lack of chemistry is just one of the hurdles in this pretentious rom-com, the bigger culprit is lack of a cohesive plot.

What to do: Neither a sex comedy nor a romantic drama, Spread makes a decent second choice for a rainy day movie rental.