Made in Romania

This is my first attempt at reviewing a film.

I happened to catch this last night on On-Demand and chose it largely due to having a mild interest in Eastern Europe.

I am astonished that nobody else has reviewed this film, so here is my $0.02:

This is a worthy comedy and has in its favor that it seemed to get funnier as the story progressed. I don't think it worth a trip to the cinema, but definitely consider checking it out on On-Demand or via other means of electronic reception. At least it's something different from most of what's out there. A few of the characters are quite well done (the mercurial gay director, the mafioso landlord, the chief of police).

I would like to think this shows great promise for the future careers of those who made it.

That pretty much sums it up. Lol. I'm a fan of Jennifer Tily that's why I record this on my DVR from Showtime movie channel. The film starts out with Jennifer's narrative about film business in general and independent film was intriguing. I think this film would have successfully accomplish its goal as a satirical comedy on film making, instead the low budget shows in the untalented actors, lighting, cinematography, etc, therefore it didn't pull off.

Another similar film was L.A Confidential. In contrast, L.A Confidential did a much better job than what this film is trying to achieve.

and i luv jennifer tilly! this flic is krap! doesn't offer anything beyond the opening screen split five times. after that it's a down hill slide into a complete non-story.

every character is uninteresting, boorish, and repetitive in personality. was this on purpose? i do not know. the plot/story goes nowhere and the ending made no sense to me.

really, i don't know why i'm bothering to write this review. i just really like jennifer tilly but not in this movie. after watching i was sad, confused, and empty in what i had seen. advertised as a comedy - it is not. it's a disturbed story about disturbed people. and the director did not 'pull it off' as the saying goes.

skip this one - save you cash for another movie.

As a Romanian living in Romania, I was intrigued by this film's title. Then I read the synopsis and said to myself "Well, I won't be expecting to see anything good about my country in this flick".

However, I was surprised to see that the film's writers, while far from glorifying Romania or even showing much sympathy for it, went rather easy on my country in the end. Apart from using some stereotypes that I would feel like a hypocrite if I dismissed (feral dogs, corruptible police force, influential – and charismatic – mobsters, an overall disregard for work safety or the common confusion between Bucharest, Romania and Budapest, Hungary), they didn't go to great lengths to mock Romania. So I would say that the film's depiction of my country is not flattering, but it's not insulting either.

Now, of course, this film is NOT about Romania. In fact, the title "Made in Romania" should be read as "Made in ANY Second-World Country where It's Cheap to Shoot Movies". And I thought the film did a pretty good job living up to this premise.

"Made in Romania" is a light-hearted, mockumentary-style, low-budget film that doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't force itself to turn every scene into a laughable moment. Some viewers may find parts of it too "boring" for a comedy and too "shady" for a drama. But I, for one, found the dosage just fine and felt really entertained by the film.

Make no mistake: this film was clearly intended to be an anti-Hollywood satire. But it's not a parody. I mean, most of what happens on screen might have happened – and will probably always happen – in real life. It's bittersweet, not just bitter.

The characters are pretty well built. We have an unscrupulous financier, a young producer who would rather be in a creative job, a benign star (Jennifer Tilly as herself), a mentally unstable director, an alcoholic cinematographer... Watching all these personalities clash on set, one couldn't help but wonder: how is it possible for ANY film to EVER get made?

Yet films do get made. Like Geoffery Rush's character in "Shakespeare in Love" puts it, "Strangely enough, it all turns out well. (...) I don't know. It's a mystery".

"Made in Romania" is not showing us anything we haven't seen – Christopher Guest has been making such mockumentaries for 30 years now ("This Is Spinal Tap", "For Your Consideration", to name just two of my favourites). And he certainly isn't the only one. But this film does bring something new to the table of faux documentaries about the world of showbiz: the "exotic" location (Eastern Europe).

Bottom line: if you're a Christopher Guest fan, if you like to go behind the scene of a film production and/or if you're a cynical little bugger who enjoys works that mock Hollywood, "Made in Romania" is the film for you! (You get a bonus if you're actually living in Romania.)