Spread (film)
Encyclopedia
Spread is a 2009 film starring Ashton Kutcher
and Anne Heche
and directed by David Mackenzie
. The film was released under the name L.A. Gigolo in Denmark
, Finland
, Norway
, and Sweden
, as Toy Boy in France
, Germany
, Italy
and the Netherlands, Oh yeah in Argentina
and as American Playboy in Spain
and Portugal
, Love, Sex and Celebrity in Japan
, and S-Lover in South Korea
. The film was released on 17 January at the Sundance Film Festival
and was released on August 14, 2009 in theatres.
) lives in Los Angeles drifting from relationship to relationship without a job and without a home. He preys on women who have money to provide for him. After meeting Samantha (Anne Heche
) at a club he moves in with her, using his looks and sexual prowess.
While Sam is out of town he meets a waitress named Heather (Margarita Levieva
). He enlists his friend Harry (Sebastian Stan
) to help him get Heather interested but she doesn't fall for his games and though they go on a date she leaves Nikki to go elsewhere. Soon after Heather unexpectedly shows up in Nikki's pool and they end up having sex but Nikki gets mad when moving Heather's car in the morning which really is her "boyfriend's" and she told him she was single. Meanwhile Nikki has begun cheating on Sam, first with his friend Emily (Rachel Blanchard
), then with Christina (Sonia Rockwell). Sam catches him with Christina and gets angry at him, but they make up and have an uneasy arrangement where she will ignore his infidelity. However this arrangement proves too difficult and she soon throws him out.
Nikki searches for somewhere to stay but he has fallen out with Harry and cannot get into the parties he once did. He runs into Heather and she admits that she was only interested in him for his house, believing him to be rich, she is the same as Nikki, scamming rich men for possessions in the same way he did with women. She lets him move in with her and her stoner room-mate Eva (Ashley Johnson
) and they begin dating though Heather continues to scam and hustle with Nikki.
One day Heather is upset and reveals to Nikki that she just broke up with her fiancé because she's in love with him (Nikki). She further tells him her fiancé's family owns the New York Rangers
and reveals that the fiancé's the one who's been paying her bills and living expenses. Nikki is furious that he didn't know that Heather was engaged and leaves the house in a huff. When he returns he only finds a note from her that she has flown to New York City. At Eva's urging and with Harry's financial help for the airfare, Nikki follows her. He finds her at a plush penthouse apartment and wants her to come back to LA with him. She says she can't, telling him he's not a realist while she runs down the funds they would need to live. He then proposes to her, but she tells him that she is already married, breaking his heart. Her husband (Hart Bochner
) returns home couple of moments after that and she tells him Nikki is a grocery boy. Nikki returns to LA, gets a job delivering groceries and finds a place to live; he no longer runs scams. He is shown delivering groceries to Samantha's house in the hills where they're picked up by another young good-looking man. The ending credits show Nikki feeding a mouse to an African Bullfrog
in Harry's apartment where he lives.
, based on 59 reviews, the movie rated an aggregate score of 20% positive reviews, noting that, "Despite occasional detours into surprisingly dark territory, Spread overall is an ineffectual celebration of vacuous Los Angeles high life rather than a deconstruction of it."
Ashton Kutcher
Christopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
and Anne Heche
Anne Heche
Anne Celeste Heche is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She started her career on the daytime soap opera Another World, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. Heche gradually landed supporting roles in feature films, and in 1997 appeared in I Know What You Did Last Summer,...
and directed by David Mackenzie
David Mackenzie (director)
David Mackenzie is a Scottish film director. His brother is actor Alastair MacKenzie.-Selected films:*Perfect Sense starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green*You Instead David Mackenzie (born 10 May 1966) is a Scottish film director. His brother is actor Alastair MacKenzie.-Selected films:*Perfect...
. The film was released under the name L.A. Gigolo in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, as Toy Boy in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and the Netherlands, Oh yeah in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and as American Playboy in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Love, Sex and Celebrity in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and S-Lover in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. The film was released on 17 January at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and was released on August 14, 2009 in theatres.
Plot
Homeless gigolo Nikki (Ashton KutcherAshton Kutcher
Christopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
) lives in Los Angeles drifting from relationship to relationship without a job and without a home. He preys on women who have money to provide for him. After meeting Samantha (Anne Heche
Anne Heche
Anne Celeste Heche is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She started her career on the daytime soap opera Another World, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. Heche gradually landed supporting roles in feature films, and in 1997 appeared in I Know What You Did Last Summer,...
) at a club he moves in with her, using his looks and sexual prowess.
While Sam is out of town he meets a waitress named Heather (Margarita Levieva
Margarita Levieva
Margarita Levieva is an American actress. Born in the Soviet Union, she was a professional gymnast before going on to star in the films The Invisible, Adventureland and Spread.-Personal life:...
). He enlists his friend Harry (Sebastian Stan
Sebastian Stan
Sebastian Stan is a Romanian-born American actor. He is best known for playing Prince Jack Benjamin on the television drama Kings and Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl.-Early life:...
) to help him get Heather interested but she doesn't fall for his games and though they go on a date she leaves Nikki to go elsewhere. Soon after Heather unexpectedly shows up in Nikki's pool and they end up having sex but Nikki gets mad when moving Heather's car in the morning which really is her "boyfriend's" and she told him she was single. Meanwhile Nikki has begun cheating on Sam, first with his friend Emily (Rachel Blanchard
Rachel Blanchard
Rachel Elise Blanchard is a Canadian actress.-Early life:Blanchard was born in Toronto, Ontario, and graduated from Havergal College in Toronto, going on to Queen's University.-Career:...
), then with Christina (Sonia Rockwell). Sam catches him with Christina and gets angry at him, but they make up and have an uneasy arrangement where she will ignore his infidelity. However this arrangement proves too difficult and she soon throws him out.
Nikki searches for somewhere to stay but he has fallen out with Harry and cannot get into the parties he once did. He runs into Heather and she admits that she was only interested in him for his house, believing him to be rich, she is the same as Nikki, scamming rich men for possessions in the same way he did with women. She lets him move in with her and her stoner room-mate Eva (Ashley Johnson
Ashley Johnson
Ashley Suzanne Johnson is an American actress, best known for her two-season role as Chrissy Seaver in the TV show Growing Pains, and for her voice work in television series such as Teen Titans and Ben 10 Alien Force....
) and they begin dating though Heather continues to scam and hustle with Nikki.
One day Heather is upset and reveals to Nikki that she just broke up with her fiancé because she's in love with him (Nikki). She further tells him her fiancé's family owns the New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
and reveals that the fiancé's the one who's been paying her bills and living expenses. Nikki is furious that he didn't know that Heather was engaged and leaves the house in a huff. When he returns he only finds a note from her that she has flown to New York City. At Eva's urging and with Harry's financial help for the airfare, Nikki follows her. He finds her at a plush penthouse apartment and wants her to come back to LA with him. She says she can't, telling him he's not a realist while she runs down the funds they would need to live. He then proposes to her, but she tells him that she is already married, breaking his heart. Her husband (Hart Bochner
Hart Bochner
Hart Matthew Bochner is a Canadian film actor, screenwriter, director, and producer.-Life and career:Bochner was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Ruth , a concert pianist, and actor Lloyd Bochner...
) returns home couple of moments after that and she tells him Nikki is a grocery boy. Nikki returns to LA, gets a job delivering groceries and finds a place to live; he no longer runs scams. He is shown delivering groceries to Samantha's house in the hills where they're picked up by another young good-looking man. The ending credits show Nikki feeding a mouse to an African Bullfrog
African Bullfrog
The African Bullfrog is a species of frog in the Ranidae family. It is also known as the Pixie frog due to its Latin name....
in Harry's apartment where he lives.
Cast
- Ashton KutcherAshton KutcherChristopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
as Nikki - Anne HecheAnne HecheAnne Celeste Heche is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She started her career on the daytime soap opera Another World, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. Heche gradually landed supporting roles in feature films, and in 1997 appeared in I Know What You Did Last Summer,...
as Samantha "Sam" - Margarita LevievaMargarita LevievaMargarita Levieva is an American actress. Born in the Soviet Union, she was a professional gymnast before going on to star in the films The Invisible, Adventureland and Spread.-Personal life:...
as Heather - Sebastian StanSebastian StanSebastian Stan is a Romanian-born American actor. He is best known for playing Prince Jack Benjamin on the television drama Kings and Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl.-Early life:...
as Harry - Ashley JohnsonAshley JohnsonAshley Suzanne Johnson is an American actress, best known for her two-season role as Chrissy Seaver in the TV show Growing Pains, and for her voice work in television series such as Teen Titans and Ben 10 Alien Force....
as Eva - Rachel BlanchardRachel BlanchardRachel Elise Blanchard is a Canadian actress.-Early life:Blanchard was born in Toronto, Ontario, and graduated from Havergal College in Toronto, going on to Queen's University.-Career:...
as Emily - Eric BalfourEric BalfourEric Salter Balfour is an American singer and actor of film and television. He is the lead singer of Born As Ghosts, formerly known as Fredalba...
as Sean
Critical reception
Spread received generally negative reviews from critics. At Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on 59 reviews, the movie rated an aggregate score of 20% positive reviews, noting that, "Despite occasional detours into surprisingly dark territory, Spread overall is an ineffectual celebration of vacuous Los Angeles high life rather than a deconstruction of it."