Love for Rent

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.

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.

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.

I recently saw a screening of this movie and I must say I wasn't expecting very much. So many factors were going against it. One- being that I'm a guy who hates "chick flix" and two - I had heard of none of the actors, aside from SNL alum Nora Dunn. And three – did I mention that I'm a guy? At the risk of having my manhood challenged I must say that I loved this movie! What a pleasant surprise! Now that I'm a college grad ready for the real world, maybe I'm getting more sensitive. I don't recall the last time I had seen such an engaging story with such endearing characters. I loved this movie! Angie Cepeda, who plays Sofia, a Colombian trying to make it in America, is not only easy on the eyes, but has a natural acting ability that made me care about her within' two minutes. Ken Marino, who plays her love interest, was terrific. Both these actors are great finds. The rest of the cast was wonderful as well, especially Nora Dunn, who was cold as ice, brilliantly funny, and very human when I least expected it. The story blends comedy and drama perfectly in this profound story of love, family, and the powerful connection of mother and child. The movie was thoroughly a joy to watch, and it stayed with me days after I left the festival. Hollywood should take notice of this little film and learn how to generate true emotions from their audience. Max Burkholder, the little precocious foster kid, will steal your heart. Trust me.

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.