"Center of the World", which refers to the birth canal, tells of a young millionaire nice-guy who pays a stripper to do three days in Vegas with him. She imposes restrictions like no kissing on the lips, no talk of feelings, no fornication, etc. At issue is, will they get past the sex stuff and fall in love? Wang has put a slick veneer on this story which spends too much time with gratuitous sex and too little time with character development...and what little is developed is pretty hard to swallow. Gugino's appearance is token, out of nowhere, and contributes nothing and all the lollipop and "fire and ice" BS is just window dressing for a story which is a flat as warm beer. C

Richard Longman (Peter Sarsgaard) is a successful lonely nerd making lots of money in computer business. He meets Florence (Molly Parker, incredibly beautiful and sexy – I watched many movies where she performed secondary roles and I never noticed how gorgeous she is!),a stripper in profession who plays drums as a hobby. Richard invites her to spend three days in Las Vegas with him and paying her for the `job' ten thousand US dollars. She accepts the proposal and establishes certain rules for the sex games, including no mouth kisses or penetration. During these three days, Richard falls in love with her. I found this movie great: the two characters are very well explained and the viewer can understand the situation: a lonely guy like Richard certainly would fall with Florence after a close contact like they have. And Florence admits that once a whore, whore for the whole life. She was with him just for money and even her doubts regarding her feelings about him were superseded in the end by the reason. Fortunately Wayne Wang did not use the alternative ends showed on DVD, where Florence returns to Richard the money he spent with her and her girlfriend Jerry . In certain part of the plot, Florence puts in question her feelings with Richard, but in the end he is just a regular customer. I believe Wayne Wang used the storyline of `Pretty Woman' for developing the screenplay of this adult version of the story. My vote is eight.

Richard Longman (Peter Sarsgaard) is a dot com meteor on the rise. He's alone and depressed. He talks to Florence (Molly Parker) at his coffee place who turns out to be a stripper. He offers her $10k to spend three days in Las Vegas with him. He lays out the terms where they spend four hours each night but with limitation. He starts falling for her. Her local friend Jerri (Carla Gugino) is a card dealer.

This could have been a simple two person erotic play following in the footsteps of "Last Tango in Paris". Sarsgaard and Parker are very capable actors. It wouldn't be breaking any new grounds but it would still be interesting to see the actors try their best. Sarsgaard definitely has the sadness but he doesn't strike me as a nerd who needs to pay for a girl. That guy is too beautiful to not have a dozen girls chasing after him. Director Wayne Wang is unable to deliver anything visually compelling other than some memorable erotica. The mixing of lower grade indie cinematography is distracting. In the end, this doesn't really get there.