BrighterScribe

One Hour Fantasy Girl (2009)

"One Hour Fantasy Girl" Review: A Film Adept in Making You Grateful

This is a movie based on a true story which makes the bleakness and the reality of it have that much more impact. It's definitely a look at the darker side of life in an honest, and at times, extremely unflinching way.

Brandi/Becky is a 20 year old woman who has a dream of investing in real estate as a way to improve her situation. Tired of struggling to get by, she gets an offer from a friend (who becomes her pimp) to make some "easy" money as 'a by the hour fantasy girl' where she fulfills any fantasy one might have, as long as you can pay her fee and as long as there is no sex or kissing. It's pretty straight forward but it doesn't mean that it is pretty. As a fantasy girl no fantasy is off limits, and pleasing the client is paramount if you want repeat clientele. Everything has a price, and there is a price for everything. "One Hour Fantasy Girl" makes that aphorism really hit home.

There is a desolate truth and a certain honesty to Becky's story that evokes sympathy for her, yet it's not as if she spends her time making you feel sorry for her. She is a strong and determined woman — she had to be strong to withstand the things she learned about people and not run screaming from the room and descend into insanity. But she is a survivor of child sexual abuse and anyone who can survive that has strength.

The film demonstrates instances of kindness and then shocking cruelty. There is a real sense throughout the film that something is going to go wrong to derail Becky's pursuit of her dream. What that obstacle is you just don't know, but you keep guessing, expecting the worst to happen. And you keep hoping that Becky will hopefully escape the lurid state that is her life to somewhere better in the future.

There were definitely moments in the film that made me so uncomfortable that it made me squirm. The bleakness of Becky's journey to a freedom that seems unattainable is at times harsh and not easy to watch. But that is what makes "One Hour Fantasy Girl" so intensely effective. It's adept at making you grateful for your own situation in life because it really could be much worse. It is a film that makes you think, and isn't that what a film should do?