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There are a couple of things about this Italian sex drama that are surprising, but none that are surprising in a good way. Surprise number one is the fact that the casting folks managed to get Ernest Borgnine to appear in a film of this kind. Surprise number two is that a film about Italian hookers could turn out to be so deadly dull - and it doesn't matter whether you're watching it for the story or the sex, because on both counts the film is an absolute snoozer.Nira (Francoise Fabian) runs an elite brothel, under the guise of an art gallery in Rome. When she sells "paintings" she is, in fact, setting up her wealthy clients with stunning, high-class prostitutes. Nira has a select band of customers, including businessman Max (Ernest Borgnine), an ageing and gentlemanly client who dreams of finding the right girl to marry. Nira's motive for running the business is to pay for a new home and life for herself and her lover Alberto. However, as she enters the final few weeks of her career Nira begins to become more ruthless and close-minded towards her hookers, thus alienating them and forcing them to cut their ties with her. She finds herself turning to a married neighbour, Senine (Corinne Clery), to handle her remaining appointments.... but even there Nira treats Senine unfairly and disrespectfully. Just as Nira is about to escape the unsavoury existence she has carved for herself, the fates throw up one last cruel twist that shatters her dreams....Natale In Casa D'Appuntamento (or whatever title you know it by - e.g. "Love By Appointment", "Christmas At The Brothel" or "Holiday Hookers") is a pointless and interminable time-waster. One can only assume that it is trying to convey some kind of message about the relationship between prostitutes and their employers, or prostitutes and their clients, or maybe even employers and clients.... but whatever the point may be, it is lost in endless scenes of boring chit-chat and po-faced philosophy. Borgnine - a former Oscar-winner for "Marty", and relatively fresh from hit movies like "The Wild Bunch" and "The Poseidon Adventure" - looks as out of place as a camel in Antarctica. He plays his character as an ingratiating, over-bearing "gentleman", and looks thoroughly embarrassed of his involvement in the whole thing. The film is sheer hell to sit through, yet has the nerve to end at a totally bewildering point (leaving the viewer more irritated and unsatisfied than ever). It took 90 minutes of my life to watch this film.... and I want that 90 minutes back!!!
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