| Astor (Fran Kranz) is a naïve, idealistic romantic who has just been dumped essentially because he’s not cool enough. He doesn’t have game, charisma or any clue how to talk to women. He enlists the help of Cali, his ex’s former best friend, to teach him the ways of love. “Lust for Love” is a comedy, or romantic comedy, about Astor’s attempts to learn how to pick up women, and learn how to pick a woman for him. | | 2014
Directed by: Anton King
Screenplay by: Anton King
Starring: Fran Kranz, Dichen Lachman
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| Images courtesy of Gravitas Ventures. |
Kranz was delightfully funny; Astor’s naïveté was endearing and he proves that the best way to one’s heart is through the funny bone. The comedy itself is at a fairly low-level as it’s all predictable and suggests that anybody who relates to Astor is operating at a grade school level, but Kranz’s every-man nature makes it more funny than annoying. He has exceptionally good delivery of comedic lines so he makes things funnier than they otherwise would be. The writing, and the other characters, can leave a lot to be desired.
The girls around Astor were not nearly as interesting. Both Cali and Mila choose to be with players, for who knows what reason, especially odd considering they both think they’re smarter than Astor. They’re not; they don’t even deserve him. Cali is played by Nepalese-born actress Dichen Lachman. She’s an exotic beauty which lends Cali an air of intrigue, and at least one of Astor’s leading ladies isn’t insufferable.
Astor in fact has four leading ladies. As is very obvious from the set-up, one girl falls for Astor while he falls for another and another, causing yet another to fall for him. And thus we have a 5-way romantic triangle which isn’t particularly clever, with 4 undeserving characters and then the comedy falls short as well.
On a whole, the film is missing a driving force to keep the audience invested all the way to the end. The romantic plot, which suits the movie, is predictable and not funny in and of itself. The leading ladies, for the most part, leave a lot to be desired. But the lead is Fran Kranz and his comedic acting ability is top-notch and makes Astor a pretty funny protagonist.
“Lust for Love” is recommended for fans of Fran Kranz and for people who like independent romantic comedy takes on the awkward, bumbling, socially-inept and romantically-challenged every-man; it's the other aspects of the film that don't fully deliver.
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