The
location is terrible, but Donna’s bed & breakfast used to be known for
service that was quite solicitous, if you follow. Now she only provides lodging
and food. It is a family business now, involving her developmentally challenged
teen son Jimmy. Unfortunately, they are about to get a lot of the wrong kind of
business in Nick Chakwin & David Guglielmo’s Hospitality (trailer
here),
which opens today in Los Angeles.
The
last time Cam stayed at the B&B, Donna was still providing “room service.”
In the meantime, he served a prison sentence. However, he has not returned
first thing after his parole solely because of her charm. He also stashed the
loot in one of her air-conditioning ducts. Finding it proves harder than he
anticipated, thanks to her renovations. Fortunately, he is in no hurry to leave,
nor is she inclined to hustle him on his way. In fact, they have something nice
going, until the arrival of additional interested parties spoils the mood.
Hospitality could have been a
reasonably watchable trashy movie, but it has serious issues involving radical tonal
shifts, starting with the buzz-killing wife-beater slap Donna takes within the
first five minutes from Hirsch, her former pimp turned small town sheriff. From
there on, Chakwin & Guglielmo’s screenplay flounders about, trying to
figure out whether or not we should also sympathize with Cam, but never giving
us a reason to care.
Emmanuelle
Chriqui and Sam Trammell are not exactly Tracy & Hepburn or Bogart &
Bacall, but they have chemistry coming out of their ears compared to Aaron Paul
and Emily Ratajkowski in Welcome Home.
In fact, the relationship between Donna and Cam ebbs and flows in interesting, less
cliched ways. It is also quite amusing to watch Jim Beaver chew the scenery as
Donna’s second mysterious guest. You also sort of have to give JR Bourne credit
for fully committing to Hirsch’s utter contemptibleness.
Ultimately,
it is a shame Hospitality could not
be more offensive, because that would have also made it more memorable. It is both
small in scale and limited in thrills. Not recommended, Hospitality opens today (12/7) in the LA area, at the AMC Universal
City.