{"id":26296,"date":"2012-06-27T11:38:19","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T18:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=26296"},"modified":"2021-01-16T11:28:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T18:28:03","slug":"personal-services-1987","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=26296","title":{"rendered":"Personal Services (1987)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;The future lies in kinky people.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Poster-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-26299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Poster-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Poster.jpg 493w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA hardworking British waitress (Julie Walters) begins a new career as a madam, catering to the whims of middle-aged men with kinky sexual fantasies.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Morality Police<\/li>\n<li>Prostitutes and Gigolos<\/li>\n<li>Strong Females<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nSeveral years after her breakthrough role in <em>Educating Rita<\/em> (1983), Julie Walters gave another stellar performance in this Terry Jones-directed pseudo-biopic, loosely based on the notorious life story of British &#8220;party hostess&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cynthia_Payne\">Cynthia Payne<\/a>. Walters immediately convinces us that her &#8220;Christine Painter&#8221; is a practical, no-nonsense, driven woman who &#8212; after only very brief hesitation &#8212; finds it pleasantly straightforward to earn a living while orchestrating solutions to men&#8217;s secret desires; it&#8217;s certainly preferable to a marriage of convenience (her only other obvious way up). The screenplay follows her rise to tenuous success, as she shifts from simply brokering sexual exchanges (and engaging in a few herself) to hosting notoriously gonzo &#8220;sex parties&#8221; in her house; conflict emerges both in Painter&#8217;s troubled relationship with her disapproving father, and her run-ins with Britain&#8217;s [morality] police (who are portrayed as unequivocal baddies). Certain scenes &#8212; such as Painter&#8217;s personal fantasy sequences &#8212; feel superfluous and\/or poorly handled, but the film as a whole remains true to its intention of presenting Painter\/Payne&#8217;s story in a sympathetic and lively fashion, and remains worth a look simply for Walters&#8217; strong performance. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Julie Walters as Christine Painter<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Walters2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Walters2-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-26298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Walters2-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Walters2-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Walters2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Personal-Services-Walters2.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look simply for Walters&#8217; performance. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0093727\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1987\/05\/15\/movies\/film-personal-services.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/personal-services-1987\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=2196&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-srv\/style\/longterm\/movies\/videos\/personalservicesrhowe_a0b0c7.htm\">Washington Post Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/personal-services\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The future lies in kinky people.&#8221; Synopsis: A hardworking British waitress (Julie Walters) begins a new career as a madam, catering to the whims of middle-aged men with kinky sexual fantasies. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Morality Police Prostitutes and Gigolos Strong Females Review: Several years after her breakthrough role in Educating Rita (1983), Julie Walters gave another stellar performance in this Terry Jones-directed pseudo-biopic, loosely based on the notorious life story of British &#8220;party hostess&#8221; Cynthia Payne. Walters immediately&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=26296\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26296"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63712,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26296\/revisions\/63712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}