L.A. Without a Map

I saw this film at the Brussels International Film Festival. The Finnish director, Mika Kaurismäki, participated also in this "special screening". The film is a nice, delightful love story. There's this Scottish boy who falls in love with a girl who comes from Los Angeles. Eventually, the boy follows her to the City of Angels.

Half comedy, half romance. A nice film.

***/*****

The film tends to fizzle out, like the bright lights of Hollywood for the main character, Bradford undertaker Richard (David Tennant), but the movie is still worth viewing. I enjoyed it, especially the drab lighting in Bradford turning to the neon colors of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and actress wannabe Barbara (Vinessa Shaw), and then blending to black and white. The two don't stand a chance of working out together, but they do. The character development is shallow and much in the film is predictable enough to draw from it greatness, but the contrasting views (European and America, rich and poor, dreams and reality) give the film just enough spice to make this a good film. Vincent Gallo's character, Moss, is funny, and the cameo appearance by Johnny Depp is good--his poster eyes talk--and should have been played out along with Barbara talking with her dead father. (7/10)

In Bradford, England, the undertaker Richard (David Tennant) meets the American aspirant actress and waiter Barbara (Vinessa Shaw) and they spend some time together. Richard love movies, his great idol is Johnny Depp and he likes to write novels and obituaries. His girlfriend Joy (Saskia Reeves) is the daughter of a wealthy man. Barbara returns to Los Angeles, and Richard decides to look for her, without having her address. He finds her and decides to stay in Los Angeles, becoming friend of Moss (Vincent Gallo) and Julie (Julie Delpy). While working cleaning swimming-pools with Moss, Richard tries to become a writer and has to fight for the love of Barbara against the young and arrogant director Patterson (Cameron Bancroft), who wants only to have sex with her. 'Los Angeles Without a Map' is a lovely and delightful cult-movie, with the participation of many well-known persons. A highly recommended entertainment, having many funny situations. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): 'Absolutamente Los Angeles' ('Absolutely Los Angeles')

LA without a map was for me, the high point of this year's Singapore Film Festival (99). This modern day fairy-tale may come across as 'clich-ed' to some - especially the last bit - but it made a nice and interestingly pure change to the 'my ship is bigger than yours' crazy budget films out there right now. It's a raw and engaging film that puts a certain warmth in your heart when you leave the cinema. It's about love, dreams, loss, the fragility of life (and love) and it can be damn funny when it wants to be... the acting ain't bad either. :) Vinessa Shaw looks set to be the next big thing.

As a director, Mika Kaurismäki is definitely not as talented as his brother Aki, the drawer of great films like La vie de bohéme and Drfiting Clouds. L.A. Without a Map has nothing in it, and proves with "Condition Red" and "Last Border" that Mika Kaurismäki has lost his touch of directing. With "L.A." M. Kaurismäki tries to make a some sort of a satire of Hollywood, and connects it to a love story of a british undertaker and a lovely waitress from Hollywood. David Tennant and Vinessa Shaw play the main characters with out any kind of charisma. When Tennant's undertaker wants to be a writer and Shaw's waitress wants to be an actress in any cost, their relationship in Hollywood seems to be an impossible thing to work out.

Vincent Gallo and Julie Delpy make a charming couple in the film, but their chracters are very poorly sketched. Johnny Depp and Jerzy Skolimowski make funny cameos.

L.A. Without a Map won't make you laugh when it's supposed to, trust me. But it's not as bad you might expect, it's not a pathetic picture. Kaurismäki has only made a film that will easily erase from memory. And because of that, you can safely watch it. But that's not much.