US Release: 27th February 2004
Watched on LoveFilm Instant: Tuesday 30th October 2012
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance, Drama
Runtime: 1hr 24mins
Tagline: Break the rules. Find your freedom. Live your life
IMDb Plot Synopsis: In November 1958, the American teenager Katey Miller moves with her parents and her younger sister to Havana. Her father is an executive of Ford expatriated to Cuba, and Katey is an excellent high school senior student that misses her friends. The family is lodged in a fancy hotel, where Katey accidentally meets the local teenage waiter Javier Suarez. Later she sees Javier dancing in a public square and they become friends, but he is fired from the hotel because her acquaintances have seen them together. Katey invites Javier to participate of a Latin Ballroom Contest in the local Palace club to help him to raise some money, and she secretly meets him in the La Rosa Negra nightclub for rehearsals. Later they fall in love for each other in times of revolution.
My Review: I was well aware going into this how cheesy and uncredible this film would be and as I wasn’t much of a fan of the first one I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this soppy little film.
The absolute main reason I did is down to Romola Garai who I adore being the lead and she was really good at playing the american ‘good girl’ who moves to Mexico in the late 50s and, when she wants to enter a dancing competition, finds herself falling for a waiter at the hotel she is staying in.
It couldn’t be more sentimental but for a rainy Tuesday afternoon on holiday it did perfectly to raise my spirits a little as the warm Mexican sun shone through the screen. It was all very predictable but behind it was a classic romantic story and the ending (thankfully) wasn’t so cliched as it wasn’t necessarily the happy ending the audience is rooting for, boosting my respect for it even more.
If you like gorgeous late 50s costumes, some steamy salsa dancing and the lovely Romola Garai (plus not one but two Mad Men stars!) then this does the trick...
Score: 7/10
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