political drama directed
by : Paul Schrader featuring
: Woody Harrelson - Kristin Scott Thomas - Lauren Bacall - Lily Tomlin
- Ned Beatty running
time : 1 hour 47 minutes
With The Walker, Paul
Schrader unofficially updates themes and tropes first explored by his controversial
erotic thriller American Gigolo (1980). Woody Harrelson stars as Carter
Page III, an overtly gay, Virginian senator's son, paid as an asexual escort
of middle-aged women in the upper-crust circles of Washington, D.C. Carter's
regular clients include three politicos' wives: Natalie Van Miter (Lauren
Bacall), Abigail Delorean (Lily Tomlin), and Lynn Lockner (Kristin Scott
Thomas), to whom Carter is closest - so close that he squires her, regularly,
to sexual rendezvous with her lover, the lobbyist Robbie Kononsberg (Steven
Hartley). When an unknown perpetrator stabs Robbie to death, and Lynn discovers
his murdered body at his condo, Carter attempts to protect Lynn and her
husband, Larry (Willem Dafoe), from media intrusion by informing the police
that he found the body himself, despite the fact that it makes him an immediate
suspect. In time, Carter discovers from the women (during their gossip
over a canasta game) that Robbie was involved with a shady insurance company,
on the verge of being investigated - and that the investigation would have
uncovered dirt and scandal on each woman. To shield Lynn from trouble,
and deliver himself from incrimination, Page ultimately decides to investigate
the crime himself, with the close assistance of his lover, the German-Turkish
photographer Emek (Moritz Bleibtreu). Schrader authored the original script.
