Bordello is directed by Carlo Liconti and written by Daniel Matmor. It is a historical drama about the survival and prosperity of a bordello, the survival and prosperity of the people who work in the bordello, and how the well-being of the bordello and its workers often conflict with one another.

Kris Holden-Ried gives my favorite performance. He plays a pimp named Enoch, and it was absolutely vital for this character to be depicted well for Bordello to succeed. Enoch must be charismatic, warm, suspicious, and sleazy. Kris balances all of these attributes effortlessly. However, the performances aren’t flawless. An accent slips here and there. There are a few moments where I felt like the dialogue is too quick. One example is when a character comments on a moment of silence when it hasn’t been silent long enough to be worth commenting on. This particular flaw doesn’t rear its head often, but it does rear its head more than once. Nearly every character comes off as very human. Many of the major characters are complex. The relationships between these characters echo those complexities. There is a lot of humor in the excellent dialogue and when Bordello wants to be funny or charming, it is.

The pacing presents the most significant flaw, but things can still be quite suspenseful. The suspense is built entirely on the foundation of character development and exploration, but as soon as things reach a boil, it begins to fall apart. The filmmakers are masters of foreplay, but when things begin to get hot and heavy, they choose to awkwardly rush through the rest of the experience. Due to the lighting, some scenes look like traditional westerns and others look modern. This doesn’t prove to be particularly harmful, but it is occasionally distracting when the visual identity appears to change. Bordello has few physical settings but each setting helps create the illusion of being in the late 1800s, and the bordello itself looks great.

The music is always fitting and pleasant to listen to. On the subject of audio, there is a scene where a character sounds further away than she ought to. It sounded like she stepped too far away from the mic at one point. It’s one of a couple of scenes that seem to suggest reshoots weren’t prevalent in the development. It’s not an effects-laden film, but there are instances of CG blood. These instances are rare and quickly discarded. The effects are quite understated, but as one might expect these effects don’t quite have the impact of the practical stuff. Finally, with a film titled Bordello, you might be expecting a lot of nudity. There is nothing wrong if you are that person, but this is not that film. There’s a little bit of partial nudity before moving on to higher aspirations.

Bordello doesn’t align with what most people today might imagine when they think of a western. To me, it has more in common with a Jane Austin adaptation. It also has a lot of the strengths that can be found in Jane Austin’s work, but with a modernized sense of humor. I can very easily recommend this to someone looking for something in that vein. Despite what I perceive as flaws, major or minor, I still enjoyed the journey it took me on.