New Rose Hotel

REVIEW
Despite its gorgeous, sleek visuals, courtesy of cinematographer Ken Kelsch, Ferrara's New Rose Hotel is a vacant exercise. Two partners, Fox (Walken) and X (Dafoe), offer one million dollars to Sandii (Argento), an Italian hooker, to lure a Japanese businessman to another company. X falls in love with Sandii, and a series of double crosses ensue. If this sounds compelling, it isn't. Ferrara, who is adapting a William Gibson short story, eschews narrative convention, making much of the plotting incomprehensible. Walken does his patented emoting and Dafoe feigns cool detachment, but the film has no pulse and no point. The most interesting thing about New Rose Hotel is that Ferrara avoided the high violent content that is his signature, making this disappointing even for the director's core fans. Look fast for cameos by Gretchen Mol, John Lurie, Annabella Sciorra, and Ryuichi Sakamoto.