‘I’m nobody’s little girl…’
The hooker with a heart of gold is a trope as old as time, as is the idea of an older man ‘saving’ a young woman from a life of sin and debauchery. Welcome to the Rileys does occasionally stumble down this well-worn path, but the cast elevates the material into something more…
Unsatisfied with life and on a business trip to New Orleans, Doug Riley (James Gandolfini) meets Mallory, a 16-year-old stripper with a troubled past. Meanwhile, Doug’s agoraphobic wife Lois (Melissa Leo) overcomes her fears and heads to New Orleans herself. When the paths of all three characters eventually converge, big decisions will have to be made.
Not much in the way of storyline or plot then, but Gandolfini and Stewart are so good together that it barely matters. The former is softer than his usual characters, prone to sitting in his garage of an evening and crying into his cigarette, whilst the latter gives a vulnerable and spiky performance as Doug’s surrogate daughter. Sure, the film kinda peters out at the end there, but at its best, Welcome to the Rileys is an affecting character study that also touches on sexual politics, class and grief.
Now that it is generally accepted that Kristen Stewart is an incredible actor, this has cast her earlier work in a new light. Welcome to the Rileys is a film that is due a re-evaluation,