Love for Rent

Surprisingly, this is a *very* well written script from a well-thought idea for a story as well. The result is one of those "feel good" movies. There certainly are some stereotypes related to this type of romantic comedy, but, with non-stereotyped ending for each case. The difference here, however, is the "salsa" thrown in the pot, stemming from great Colombian actress Angie Cepeda (lovely, very natural and fine actress)and certainly helped out by a fine casting as well. The Latin flavor (and feelings, and life style) is present throughout the film in the two South-American girls from "...down there someplace...", as stated by Nora Dunn's character at some point. Here at IMDb below this reviewing window I got five "recommendations", all American, all very poor and certainly quite below this film's level. It also is a quite long film, which you don't notice because of the fine script and its great rendering by the actors.

I saw this movie as part of The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Although the movie had many technical issues (e.g., the boom is visible in about 30% of the film), I was so won over by the storyline and the characters that I forgot about them. The difficulty of making a good romantic comedy is that the format is standardized (guy meets girl, guy loses girl, guy gets girl). Given that, it is probably a little harder to suspend disbelief for those that are not romantics themselves. I really enjoyed this movie and I recommend it for those that like their romantic comedies with a little bit of wit and intelligence.

Note: I hate to write reviews that boil down to, "People who like this sort of thing will like this.", but there it is.

Its strange because much about this movie is kind of cliché and at times it had a strange awkwardness or amateurish feeling.

And yet, Angie Cepada is so strikingly beautiful, and at the same time so natural in her acting, that the film is a continual pleasure to watch. When she smiles it has all the warmth of someone you know. you just can't help falling in love with her.

Also, the film is interspersed with scenes that are very well done and outside the usual genre of romantic comedy, incorporating an off-beat humor that is at once silly and quite smart, because it captures the awkwardness of social interaction so well.

Even though at times it has an intelligent indie quality to it, it is still ultimately a predictable sappy romantic comedy about motherhood and family. If you expect nothing more it may surprise you though...I couldn't tear myself away.

After reading such a harsh review of Love For Rent in the Miami Herald, I just had to see what stirred up such emotion in their critic, especially since I read a terrific review in the LA Times.

Angie Cepeda, plays Sofia, a Colombian native struggling to keep alive her dream of becoming a lawyer in America (finally a Latina in a film not depicted as a cleaning lady). She is so driven in her goals that when she gets an A- minus in law class, she is disappointed. After getting robbed of everything and it looks as though there's no choice but to give up and go back to Columbia, she is offered money to carry a childless couple's baby. She becomes a surrogate mother. But this movie is about much more than that. It's about the powerful mother-child connection whether genetically bonded or not. This theme runs throughout the movie involving most of the characters and their own maternal connections.

The entire audience cheered at the end. Perhaps, they too, were curious at what brought so much fury to the Herald's critic.

Sophie is from a Latin American country and married a U.S. citizen to enter the country. She's in school studying law and wants become a lawyer. Her fake husband takes all of Sophie's things from her apartment while she is there asleep, as well as emptying their shared bank accounts and credit cards AND he cancels her automobile insurance. The following day he admits to the theft and threatens to report their illegal marriage to the INS and have her deported if she reports him to the police. That's kind of how it starts.

I read the other review here before I saw the movie and so expected a bad movie. I was happily surprised. I liked it. It's not the world's greatest movie and I liked it.

Sophie's cousin refers to her husband as "harmless," which is a good description of this movie. It's harmless - a simple piece of fluff yet mildly entertaining. You'll even smile at a few places in the movie. It's something you might see on a family programming TV station.