Mi Casa Su Casa (the Chicago Latino Film Festival)

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She is the vivacious bombshell who was so enigmatic as the amnesiac beauty in David Lynch's <B>Mulholland Drive</B>, and she picked up a paycheck for <B>Willard</B> earlier this year.  </div> <bR> <div> In <B>Mi Casa</B>, Harring shows up in Los Angeles as the supposedly shrewish sister of a Mexican gardener (Gerardo Mejia, faded Latin singer of "Rico Suave" fame) who through that hoariest of movie clichés, has won the lottery.  She is out to get her a green card by blackmailing his priggish, newly divorced and on-the-skids former boss into marrying her.  </div> <bR> <div> The catch is that the entire Mexican family - insufferably dotty grandmother, colorless wife, obnoxious brother and two generic kids - all decide to move into the groom's mansion for the duration of the immigration proceedings, as one big happy family, hence the title.  Get it?   </div> <bR> <div> As you can imagine, the elitist pig boss/husband will gradually warm to the family, the kids will fall in love with him, the requisite staged fighting and "comic" INS visits, as well as the expected warming to each other, are all tiredly on display.  There's even an embarrassing <B>Pretty Woman</B> style shopping spree/music video thrown in for bad measure.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>Mi Casa</B> is an awful experience, so loaded down with unfunny caricatures, corny jokes, lame plot devices and telegraphed conclusions that it's almost unbearable to sit through.  </div> <bR> <div> That Harring, so lovely and radiant, beams through this junk and emerges unscathed is a testament that her neat <B>Mulholland</B> trick was no fluke.  Let's hope she's choosier about her future vehicles and re-emerges in the mainstream like her former co-star Naomi Watts.  I have a feeling this film may have been languishing around for a while with no distributor (can't imagine why), and could have been done before <B>Mulholland</B> was even released.  </div> <bR> <div> At any rate, she can't save this film, which contains not a single good scene.  Since a "special guest" had been promised at the screening, I had hoped to be consoled by her in-person presence when the curtain rose, but only director Bryan Lewis was present for a Q&A (one has to imagine what he would discuss), so I bolted when the first credit rolled.  </div> <bR> <div> This train wreck is a must to avoid, which shouldn't be too difficult given that a dog of these proportions - even with second-rate stars like Mejia and cameos by Barbara Eden, whose faded star apparently will do anything for money - rarely gets distribution.  That someone even thought this dreck up as a major motion picture rather than a failed sitcom pilot is beyond me.  It's an empty, unfunny film.  It gets one star for Harring's beauty.  Enough said.  </div> <div>  </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> 90 Minutes</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Not Rated</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="588" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Profanity, Tasteless Humor</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div>  </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="621" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="617"><div> <B>Lee Shoquist © 2003</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> <A HREF="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com"><U><U>Leeshoquist.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>