Review

  • This movie is not a real high performance film, but it is a very usual kind of story, which even has some funny moments. However, what makes its score lower, is a complete lack of a minimum cultural knowledge, especially about Brazil. In a certain point of the movie Christine Baransky (Lee Bellmont in the film) says that she loves the Brazilians, and especially the music of "salsa" - which demonstrates an absolute lack of knowledge of the Brazilian music: salsa is not, and never has been, Brazilian. Later in the same movie, they arrive to the place where it is supposed to have Brazilian dance music, and what you can hear is mambo and tango - none of them having any Brazilian connection (the real one would be the samba, or maybe the bossa-nova etc..). As mentioned, this lack of knowledge is unacceptable for a movie made in 2005, and by USA producers which are in the same American continent with the other Latin American countries. This fact about the film, reduces any scoring, not only for the error, but because it shows that the film makers has no reasonable cultural worries (and possible knowledge) thought working in a "cultural" environment. Therefore, the good acting of the stars are compromised by the inaccuracy of what should be everyday medium level education.