Sorry, this movie sucks

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The producers of this film seem not to have decided what they really wanted to do - a documentary? some social comment about prostitution? a drama about how a young student is almost driven into prostitution? a soft porn movie? The result is a mix of all those, without really being any of them. Denise Richards and Daryl Hannah seem very little at ease with their very thin acts inter-threaded with what seem to be interviews with real practicants of the older profession and porn actors and directors. The social comment is not consequent, sometimes forgiving, sometimes harsh, and in any case it does not say anything new about the subject that was or is said in any TV documentary. It is hard to say why they did this film, and who would be really interested in it.

When I heard about this film I thought that it was going to be a dumb porno about prostitutes or superficial like some other programs that I have seen that tried to tap into the true world of prostitutes. I decided to give it a chance because I knew and respected the work of the American actresses in the film. I felt that this movie was very artistically done and I loved the mixture of languages, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Hungarian, English etc. This mixture of language displayed how widespread this profession is. In this movie a variety of prostitutes were shown from girls working with agencies, to girls working alone to girls trying to do porn. It also showed some of the male's perspectives of the business and their involvement. I especially liked how it touched on human trafficking and sex slaves because many people do not know that some prostitutes are forced into the profession. Overall an extremely well done movie.

I saw this movie on cable. I'm glad I didn't pay to rent it. Years ago I saw the Teresa Russell version titled "Whore" and I found it equally dry and disconnected. But I was at least compelled to watch that version with interest due to the slightly better quality of the production. This time around, despite the appeal of Denise Richards, I found it to be choppy and tedious. The constant "code switching" -- between the gritty documentary style and the Hollywood stars in fabricated studio sets -- really pollutes the vision of what this film is trying to achieve, I think. Honestly, the best thing this movie has going for it is the provocative poster featuring a woman shaving herself. (Furthermore, I can't get over the fact that Daryl Hannah continues to get work in the film industry, but that's just me.)In closing, I wish to make an important point regarding the previous reviewer's comments. With all due respect to lizardiharp's submission above, the Spanish phrase 'Yo Puta' does not translate to 'The Life.' 'La Vida' means 'The Life.' 'Yo Puta' means, appropriately, 'I am a whore.'

The scenes that ostensibly advance the "plot" are few an far between; punctuated by a jumbled mess of mock-documentary confessional scenes. The documentary segments might have been somewhat interesting, if only for their multi-national take on a common theme, except for the fact that they were edited in such a way as to jump from person to person within a topic, then back again, in no apparent order. The effect was to make it seem as though the director was attempting to s-t-r-e-t-c-h limited footage to take up more time. Not necessary, as it turned out, because the film seemed twice as long as it actually is.The big question here is whether the direction or editing is worse. I suppose the direction appears worse due to choppy editing; the editing was probably worsened by horrible direction.It is unfair to judge the acting ability of either Daryl Hannah or Denise Richards based upon this film. Questioning their judgment (or desperation?) in appearing in this mess of a film is another story entirely!