Product Details

• Actors: Adrien Brody, Charlotte Ayanna, Jon Seda, August Diehl, Pam Grier
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English, French, German, Russian, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Kino International
• DVD Release Date: October 28, 2003
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000C2IVA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,613 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Love the Hard Way" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

LOVE THE HARD WAY - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yup, That's the Hard Way All Right, November 8, 2003

By 

mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Love the Hard Way (DVD)

Claire (Charlotte Ayanna) is a studious college student pursuing a degree in biology at a prestigious university. Jack (Adrien Brody) is a thief and con artist with a creative m.o. They come from two very different cultures and have disparate personalities. Yet, when they meet, they are immediately attracted to one another. Claire is drawn to Jack's scumminess and becomes infatuated with him. And although Jack tells himself that his attraction to Claire is purely physical, that may not be the whole story. When Claire's intense feelings begin to make him uncomfortable, Jack dumps her. Claire's devastation sends her on a self-destructive binge, and Jack, who feels responsible, follows suit.

"Love the Hard Way" was inspired by a Chinese novel, the production is European, and it was filmed in New York City with a mostly American cast. Although the film has a strong sense of taking place in a certain location among a particular sub-culture, the story is surprisingly universal. An emotionally distant man discovers, the hard way, that love may be what he seeks after all. And a caring but naive woman discovers that her life may be found in the world outside her sheltered environment. The performances in "Love the Hard Way" are all admirable. Adrien Brody fans will want to see this one. He is especially good here. Pam Grier is a welcome addition to the cast in a small role as a police detective. "Love the Hard Way" was shot in just over a month on a relatively small budget. But the film looks great and the attention to detail is commendable. Writer/director Peter Sehr, producer Wolfram Tichy, cinematographer Guy Dufaux, and Christian Nauheimer, the film's editor, have all done an excellent job of pulling off a very good film that looks very good with limited resources. Recommended if you like character dramas or offbeat, somewhat hard-boiled, love stories.

The DVD: The bonus features include a "making of" documentary, deleted scenes, a theatrical trailer, and a gallery of still photographs. If you have the time, I recommend the documentary. It's badly edited, too long (1 hour) and too repetitive, but it's interesting.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A dark drama with optimism, July 24, 2005

By 

Larry VanDeSande - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Love the Hard Way (DVD)

This dark drama turns precipitiously toward Greek tragedy before ending with brief optimism, that apparently has not yet been realized in a sequel.

A crime drama, character study and love story, "Love The Hard Way" is an unrelentingly interesting and involving feast for the senses with some incongruous moments that are saved by searing performances from the two leads -- Columbia University student Claire (Charlotte Ayanna) and Jack (Adrien Brody), the amoral leader of a group of confidence men and small time crooks.

The film traces the romantic and unromantic interactions between the two and intermingles a multi-layered and multi-faceted story about two people and change -- one that promises to change but increasingly exhibits betrayal, and another has everything going for her, who then changes much for the worse. While every step of the story stairacse is not credible, every moment of the chemistry between the two very beautiful leads is credible and burns up the screen (big or little) with passion.

The story, and the personal interactions between the characters, are all aided by on-location filming in gritty and grimy sections of New York City. The photography is noirish with dark streets, half-lit rooms, rainy evenings and all the trappings of a Richard Widmark crime drama from 1955. A good cast of relative unknowns supports the two leads in this interesting modern take on film noir.

Also look for Adrien Brody in two other fine dramas -- his Academy Award-winning performance in "The Pianist" and the much lower profile but still rewarding "Oxygen" where he plays a character more in keeping with Jack from this story.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insanity, October 11, 2004

By 

Vincent Marius Gray (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love the Hard Way (DVD)

It seems strangely coincidental that I saw this movie on cable late at night as well. Regardless of how I saw it, the movie was phenomenal in the sense it portrayed a form of reality in relationships, like "Requiem for a Dream" does. It is not a mushy lie and fabrication Hollywood innovated just to make you hope for a love that doesn't even exist like most romances. It portrays sacrifice between two lovers, a true and realistic sacrifice. But with such sacrifice comes sorrow, a deep seeded sorrow that seems irremovable by the end of the movie. It's up to you to watch it, obviously, but if you have loved and hurt before, it's the perfect cinematic piece of art to comfort your soul. I never thought a director could be so intelligent in the sense of seeing what love really means and then converting it into a piece of art.