Product Details

• Actors: Adrien Brody, Charlotte Ayanna, Jon Seda, August Diehl, Pam Grier
• Directors: Peter Sehr
• Writers: Peter Sehr, Marie Noelle, Shuo Wang
• Producers: Jason Kliot, Jay Cannold, Jayne Belliveau, Joana Vicente
• 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
• Rating: 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 (31 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000C2IVA
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,650 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Studio: Kino International Release Date: 07/31/2007 Run time: 104 minutes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 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 100 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Larry VanDeSande (Mason, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars adrain brody: a good actor you don't hear much about, December 25, 2005

By	a_poet_grows_in_brooklyn "darktraveller57@bla... (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews

this one was released fresh on the heels of his oscar win in " the pianist " he plays a small time hustler who has literary aspirations. adrian does his performance raw and street, making the most of a screenplay, which is very well done. jon seda as his sidekick is equally entertaining and charlotte ayanna is good as the straight a student who tries to do a " florence nightingale" on brody's character, but succumbs to the low-end kind of life. charlotte has a great body and she shows it quite a bit here. Pam Grier ( whatever happened to her ? ) is excellent as the vice cop who's on his case. she is a good character actress, who never seems to get enough work or enough credit.