Call a leer a leer

True confession: Who doesn't want to see Jennifer Love Hewitt playing a Texasmom turned massage parlor hooker?

The Client List is another opportunity for Jennifer Love Hewitt to show off allher wardrobe choices.
Deep sociological study? No. Maxim magazine cover come to the small screen? Yes.
Jamie-Lynn Sigler explored similar territory in an equally-classy USA originalmovie.

OK, I'll admit. it. I'll be watching Lifetime at 8 Monday night or more likely DVRing it.

Unlike Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik, I'm not going to pretend there are some deep sociological examination motivations behind the unlikely tune in either. No, this is all gratuitous viewing, all about seeing Jennifer Love Hewitt playing a hot mom turned massage parlor prostitute. (As a bonus, she's a Texan in the movie from a fictional town, guaranteeing unbelievable accents).

Yes, it really is as classy as it sounds.

Like many in my generation, I grew up watching Jennifer Love Hewitt on Party of Five (though I was much more of a Neve Campbell man back then) and while this show choice is a largely embarrassing admission today (re-watch Party of Five these days and it's so over-the-top angst-riden that it's hard to imagine anyone could have ever enjoyed it let alone made it appointment TV like I did), it's a key to Lifetime's original movie The Client List.

The formula for basic cable networks' most buzzed-over productions is pretty simple these days: Put a beautiful former TV series star in a role where she'll have good cause to wear a lot of lingerie.

See Jamie-Lynn Sigler in the USA original Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss. High-brow marketing it's not.

Which is fine as long as people don't pretend it's something else. There's nothing wrong with some trash TV. The reason that Jennifer Love Hewitt has been dominating Google search trends for most of the weekend has absolutely nothing to do with a desire from budding amateur sociologists to investigate what could cause a young mom who lost her job to go into massage parlor hookerdom. Instead, it's all about a desire to see what basic-cable-testing outfits Lifetime's stuffed Hewitt and her considerable assets in.

Still, critics like Zurawik (and he's not the only one) cannot help themselves.

"Normally, I wouldn't be writing about a made-for-TV movie on prostitution," the Baltimore Sun's prominent TV voice begins his piece. "But The Client List starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, is different. The sociology of this Lifetime film that premieres Monday night at (8) is what matters."

Sure it is.

Zurawik continues later, "That's what makes The Client List worth looking at and thinking about: It is all about prostitution as it relates to the economy. Furthermore, I believe it is barometer, as only pop culture can be, of how bad the economy is still perceived to be by middle-class Americans. And that means big trouble for Democrats come November. But let me explain how Jennifer Love Hewitt as a prostitute speaks to the anxiety and pain middle-class Americans are feeling today."

Yes, he made the argument that a titillating tone Lifetime original could hurt the Democrats at the ballot box four months from now. Come on Zurawik!

You've seen the clips on The Joy Behar Show where Jennifer Love Hewitt talks about the movie with Joy as a running montage of scenes of Hewitt in negligees from The Client List plays on a big screen in the background (by my count, there are three different babydolls alone and a whip cream scene, not that I could concentrate on such frivolities while concern for the Democrats' hold in Congress was racing through my mind).

And Lifetime's own poster of the movie features a basic cable nude Hewitt sprawled across a bed while a shadowy man leers in the background. In other words, the poster shows what most of the viewers of this "classic character study" will look like.

Even Hewitt isn't trying to sell the movie as basic cable's version of an Oscar winner. This isn't HBO. They're not even pretending it's high art.

Trash TV may rule the world, but let's not pretend it's saving it too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a DVR to program.

A preview of the deepness that is The Client List:

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Movie Review

An all-star cast delivers clever laughs in new comedy The Invite

Photo courtesy of A24

Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton in The Invite.

Once upon a time, well before scandal embroiled him, Woody Allen made great comedies aimed at adults. That type of film — which is different from the raunchy, R-rated comedies of the 21st century — has fallen out of favor in Hollywood, but as the new film The Invite proves, when done well it can be as funny as anything else out there.

Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde) are an unhappily married couple living in San Francisco. As we meet them, Joe has arrived home to Angela preparing for a visit from their upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Piña (Penélope Cruz), who have moved in relatively recently. Their impending arrival starts a new round of arguing between Joe and Angela, something they can barely contain once the other couple comes to their door.

What proceeds is a getting-to-know-you process that is mostly awkward as Joe and Angela continue sniping at each other while Hawk and Piña put in their two cents in a much calmer manner. A sticking point between the two couples — the loud sex Hawk and Piña have on an almost nightly basis — turns the film on its head with an unexpected invitation.

Directed by Wilde and written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, the film is a fast-paced chamber piece that takes place almost entirely in Joe and Angela’s apartment. Wilde, the writers, and the actors speed the story along not with action but through almost non-stop dialogue that often has the characters overlapping each other’s lines. The rapidity of the speech fuels the humor of the situation and establishes the differing personalities of each person.

Sex is very much top of mind for each of the characters for most of the film, but the filmmakers approach the topic in such a way that it never feels salacious. Each of the characters is a rational adult who can talk about sex in a mature manner while also acknowledging their unique feelings on the matter. And it’s the discoveries each of them makes along the way that brings about the most comedy.

But, like any comedy for adults, the film also has a dramatic tilt to it, and Wilde edges the story back-and-forth between the two tones extremely well. Joe and Angela fighting is played for laughs at times, but the sadness of their relationship comes through loud and clear. Hawk and Piña are much more intimate with each other, but the funniness of their openness is juxtaposed with a depth that arises through their conversations.

In the 2020s, Rogen has managed to make the transition from goofy stoner to stoner with real acting chops. In a stacked cast, he is the one who sells every moment the best. That’s not to say that Wilde, Norton, and Cruz don’t measure up, though; each of them inhabits their respective roles magnificently. The four actors play off each other as if they had been working together for years.

While The Invite will likely play better to those who have experience with long term relationships, its insights — and occasional bawdiness — make it a comedy that can be appreciated universally. With four actors at the top of their games and a razor-sharp script made even better by some well-done improv, it proves that you don’t need to go low to get great laughs.

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The Invite is now playing in theaters.

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