Paraiso Travel (Simon Brand, 2008)

4/10
I saw this as part of the ongoing Latin American Film Festival in Montreal, and apparently it was a huge hit in its native Columbia when it came out a couple of years ago. The story centers around Marlon, who emigrates from Columbia to New York with his ultra-sexpot, temptress girlfriend Reina, with (her) promises of a better life and the glory and wonder of America, and so on. Marlon is far more reluctant. Of course the New York Marlon finds is considerably harsher than the one on the scenic posters in the Paraiso Travel "underground immigration office" in Columbia, especially when he gets seperated almost immediately from Reina. The film cuts between the couple's rough and dangerous journey to New York (a journey many real immigrants no doubt have made), and Marlon's struggles to survive all the while searching for Reina.
I thought there were a lot of things wrong with this movie - while Marlon and Reina's journey is a hard one, Marlon's arrival in New York goes about as smoothly as any homeless non-English-speaker's ever has - he spends exactly one night on the streets before he's taken in by the kindly wife of the owner of a Columbian restaurant, he finds work first doing hard labour and eventually in the restaurant, he's given places to sleep for free (none of which are ideal but certainly better than the streets), and he even meets another gorgeous girl as Reina finally starts to become a distant memory. It also doesn't hurt that Marlon looks like he walked onto the screen straight from a modelling gig - he may indeed be the most attractive homeless man in cinema history. This makes Marlon a difficult character to sympathize with, especially after he blows off or displays almost outright ingratitude for these opportunities that other immigrants would no doubt kill for. Add to that the fact that the story doesn't really bring anything new, the emotion is generally flat for the entire film, and everything plays out entirely as one would expect virtually from the get-go, and I didn't find a whole lot to enjoy here (but a lot to write about, I suppose).