Final Rating: 4/5
Ed. note: read our original reviews of Paying For It from TIFF and VIFF.
The contrasts in Paying For It start with its poster. Dan Beirne and Emily Lê, who play Chester and Sonny, lie in bed together. Beirne’s Chester seems like a generic white guy. He has no distinguishing features. Meanwhile, Lê’s Sonny has a streak of red that sticks out from her black hair. She has a manic pixie-esque vibe to her appearance, even down to her more playful expression than Beirne’s look of confusion. This sets the stage for most of what plays out in Sook-Yin Lee’s film.
Adapted from an autobiographical graphic novel created by Chester Brown, Paying For It follows Chester (Beirne) as he’s unexpectedly drawn into a world of prostitutes in search of human connection and sexual relief. What makes the premise so compelling is that it stems not from Chester desiring this exploration, but from his girlfriend Sonny (Lê) telling him that she wants to explore romantic feelings that she’s developed for somebody else. This sets the two of them–who continue to live together for most of the movie–on very different paths forward.
While the film keeps in touch with Sonny’s ups and, more frequently, downs in relationships, her story plays second fiddle to Chester’s. It’s apparent that Chester values sex in a relationship and wasn’t getting that from Sonny. At one point, he mentions to his friends that his budget can afford hiring a prostitute for seventeen sessions a year and that he and Sonny did not have sex that often.
So begins Chester’s journey paying for sex. While Sonny throws herself into romantic relationships that appear to have little chemistry, Chester finds tender companionship with almost every woman he pays to have sex with. He explores intimacy and loves what he discovers. While he starts out giving these women the fake name of “Steve”, he eventually stops worrying about them knowing who he is and even goes so far as to give some of them copies of the graphic novels he’s written. The irony is not lost that the person desperate for a romantic partner is not the one finding the romantic connections.
Sook-Yin Lee is no stranger to unconventional romance in her films. Year of the Carnivore and Octavio Is Dead! both deal with themes in the same realm, each exploring an avenue of self-discovery and sexual awakening that won’t often be found in the average rom-com. Here in Paying For It, she’s doing that again, this time with a story that somebody actually lived.
Knowing that this is autobiographical makes Chester’s happiness so much more infectious. Most people who’ve struggled to form a satisfactory romantic bond with another person don’t usually think hiring someone for that position makes sense. And most of the advice they receive on the subject–like Chester does from his friends–doesn’t point toward prostitution as a solution.
But in an age when sexuality, compatibility, and relationships are redefined on a seemingly weekly basis, why shouldn’t paying for that connection be just as viable an option? Clearly, as Sonny’s romantic failures indicate, obsessing over romantic love is not the right path for everybody.
That isn’t to say there aren’t obstacles in Chester’s path, but they’re minimal at best and mostly to do with his continued connection to Sonny (and by extension, her boyfriends). This is the main relationship in the film and they effectively stopped dating in the first scene. The easiest knock on the film is that it unfolds as straightforwardly as it does. The stray complications in Chester’s life feel almost like afterthoughts. Perhaps it’s simply true to life, but the film’s resolution doesn’t hit as hard because it doesn’t feel like there was much difficulty in reaching it.
The relatively underwhelming resolution is a byproduct of Sook-Yin Lee’s commitment to making these characters feel like the real people they’re based on. There’s no over-the-top dramatization between any of them. Their dialogue feels lived in and authentic. The camera acts like a fly on the wall for their conversations. In particular, Dan Beirne allows himself to be completely vulnerable as Chester. It all comes at the cost of the ending, but the journey to get there provides incredible characterization in the vein of Kelly Reichardt.
The film also has an episodic nature that holds back many of the other dynamic characters like Sonny’s friend and coworker Suzo (Noah Lamanna), her boyfriends: Miles (Ehren Kassam), Carl (Stephen Kalyn), and Reed (Ishan Davé), and the many prostitutes Chester encounters: Anne (Kitoko Mai) and Yulissa (Andrea Werhun) chief among them. Chester Brown’s writing makes you want to know more about them, but most don’t appear in many scenes.
Paying For It hammers home how everybody can thrive with different relationships. Counter to how most of us are raised, someone’s best life often isn’t a suburban house with a picket fence, a spouse, and two children. While there are many steps in between that conventional idea and what transpires for Chester, seeing the success of someone who came to the realization that convention isn’t all it’s cracked up to be is inspiring. The combination of Chester Brown’s screenplay–adapted from his own novel–and Sook-Yin Lee’s steady directorial hand creates a film that challenges relationship norms and promotes finding what makes someone feel the most comfortable.
Thank you to Film Movement and Foundry Communications for the screener.
