Always a pleasure to see anything new coming out of Latin America, Argentina is one of the most talented countries when it comes to film production. Una Noche Con Sabrina Love has two of the Spanish speaking world's greatest actresses in Cecilia Roth and Norma Aleandro. Alas, the latter is woefully under-used in a role as a photographer that she fleshes out way beyond its worthiness. Aleandro glows off the screen with sheer star power but essentially has very little to do. Cecilia Roth sinks her teeth into the role of porn star Sabrina Love who gives one night of passion to the virginal seventeen year old Daniel, who writes to her from his small village in the country and wins one night in her arms. With a series of picaresque adventures before he arrives in Buenos Aires, Daniel reconnects with the secretly gay brother he has not seen for three years. Without having read the source material of the book on which this movie is based, one has an expectation that the picaresque adventures will continue. Alas, the story gets bogged down in heavy-handed philosophical discussion that should have been tossed out of the window. This is one very obvious instance in which the screenwriter should have stepped away from the source material. There is a lot of very good acting talent at work here, specifically from the two lead actresses, but as the character of Daniel (ably interpreted by Tomas Fonzi) is the focus of the story, there should have been more opportunity for his character to experience a wider range of emotions. One wonders how Fellini might have handled a coming of age story like this. Not a complete failure, but when the movie has the title One Night With Sabrina Love, one could be forgiven for wanting to see how the encounter between the porn star and the inexperienced young guy would affect her as much as him. It would certainly have given Cecilia Roth a greater opportunity, which she unquestionably would have soared with. An interesting movie with a few disappointing longeurs along the way. Could have been better with a more skilfully written script. Just because the book is good doesn't mean to say that the script should stay faithful.
