There is nothing more annoying than a comedy that is flatly unfunny. To be fair this new humorless Brit pic was billed as a drama too, but that didn’t pan out too well either resulting in a real mish-mash of a movie who’s only real saving grace was some glorious scenery, and an ex Ballet Dancer.
This is the story of two Scottish sisters who set off to spread the ashes of their late father in the land that he fought to help free : Cuba. Not an obvious connection between these two countries and their different cultures, but hey, this is the movies after all. The plan is to scatter his remains alongside those of their sainted mother who had also been a freedom fighter there in the 1970’s. The only snag is that they have no idea exactly where her last resting place is, so armed with just an old photograph, a name, and battered hat as clues, they start the search.
And that’s where all the stereotypes and cliches start being laid on thick and fast. One sister is intelligent, independent, plain dresser, out to save the world single handedly and a bit of a man hater, and the other is a girly-girl who dresses in skimpy clothes and is totally selfish and obsessed with having ‘a good time’ preferably on the arm of a good-looking date. And of course every hot-blooded Cuban man is after only one thing. Well two actually, they are poor so they want their money as well.
I wish I could say that it gets better in the next very long 102 minutes but it doesnt. Their late mother turns out to have been far from a Saint, the ‘serious’ girl ends up with the hottest man in the Southern Hemisphere, whilst the ‘fluffy’ one settles for a local Edinburgh boy who for reasons never explained, had come to Cuba for the ride.
Every movie, even a tepid badly-written melodrama such as this, has redeeming points. In this case as I mentioned earlier, its some stunning cinematography of the splendid locations which really showed Cuba off at its best. And secondly Cuban Ballet Star Carlos Acosta, who proved that he can act as well as he can dance, it is such a pity that he didn’t have much of a role to show us his talents more.
This disappointing lightweight movie is scheduled for the Miami Film Festival this coming week, so its a very good thing that the filmakers had the sense to do subtitles for the thick Scottish accents. After that it will surely go straight to DVD. If it’s lucky. Or on TV where it probably belonged in the first place.
★★★★
Labels: British, comedy. drama
