The Client List 2010

The Client List

Samantha [Jennifer Love Hewitt] Dale Horton and her husband Rex Horton [Teddy Sears] are unemployed and struggling to provide for their three children and keep their home. Desperate to stave off foreclosure, Samantha takes a job at a massage parlor, but quickly discovers it is a house of prostitution, whose internal motto is beats the hell out of waitressing. As the Hortons slide toward the edge of financial ruin, Samantha stays at the parlor and becomes one of its most popular employees, winning clients with her warmth and people skills.

While her earnings rise, she keeps the true nature of her job hidden from family and friends, even as she lavishes them with expensive gifts. Rex eventually finds work again, but Sam’s growing popularity brings its own toll: she becomes exhausted, and the strain begins to affect her relationships. One of her clients even introduces her to cocaine to help her keep going.

Meanwhile, a very young masseuse has exposed the business to a church group, and public pressure on the mayor—who is up for re-election—sparks a police raid, despite many officers being clients themselves. Sam’s arrest is broadcast live on television at the bar Rex frequents, and her drug supply is found as well, leading to an additional charge for possession.

Sam is bailed out of jail by her close friend Dee [Sonja Bennett], the only person she confided in about the job. Dee pushes her to confront the consequences of staying in the parlor, and Sam and Rex eventually separate. Laura [Kandyse McClure], a lawyer and another friend, helps Sam see a path forward by forming a “client list” of the more prominent Johns. Their collaboration earns Sam and her co-workers relatively light jail sentences.

After her release, Sam faces judgement from several of the clients’ wives who seek advice on how to salvage their marriages. In an attempt to move on, she takes a job as a waitress and returns to college, hoping to repair her relationship with Rex and rebuild a more stable life for herself and her family.