Cowboy del Amor

I'm definitely not a movie critic, just an artist who has been around the block in life. I just discovered this cute little documentary on Netflix. Until today I had never heard of the "Cowboy Cupid." Ivan Thompson was hilarious in this film.

I laughed not only at his clever one-liners but also at his ignorance of the essence of the problem he was seeking to rectify. I laughed with him, and at times, at him. Ivan's flawed thinking was that women accustomed to less will always be satisfied with less even if presented with the opportunity to advance themselves. This logic just isn't consistent with human nature (male or female). We all want to be the boss and have things our way.

Ivan was thinking he could go to Mexico and get a wife who would obey him without question. What he got is a woman who wanted a man who would obey her without question (note who won the battle). Hum, funny how we're all really the same.

The reality is that some people (men and women) are just nicer than others. Some fight more than others against those strong natural internal urges to control and be selfish. It's not really about where a person comes from. It's actually about what a person is inside.

Today one has a very difficult time finding someone who is genuinely kind and loving. Someone who is honest and sincere. They are out there but it takes a lot of wisdom and patience to find them.

All in all I liked this film and I would enjoy meeting Ivan sometime.

Documentaries are all about the subjects, or people in this case, they focus on. Good people, good documentary. Boring people, boring documentary. In this case, the subject of the film carries the picture from beginning to end, and you just never know what he's gonna do next.

This is a well shot and well edited documentary. The score is very very good as well. This film sheds light on how our two (US and Mexico) societies view relationships through the eyes of several participants, both on the Mexican (women looking for American husbands) side, and the US (men looking for Mexican wives) side.

Ivan, the star of the movie, is very entertaining as the Cowboy del Amor. At times you go from hating him, to liking him, to feeling sorry for him, all, it seems, in the span of a few minutes. He tries his best to hook up American men ("gringos" as he prefers) to Mexican women, for marriage (he's not running a whorehouse as he states emphatically). His "Ivanisms" and one-liners will keep you in stitches for the entire film.

For the most part he wants his clients (on both sides) to be happy and find lifelong friendship and companionship. But Ivan himself might have a lot to learn about love...

As New York Observer's senior Critic Andrew Sarris puts it: "Michèle Ohayon's Cowboy del Amor turns out to be one of the sweetest, funniest and most enjoyable nonfiction films you are likely to see this year. " Cowboy Del Amor is a must see! It's funny, colorful, enjoyable for the entire family.

Mr. Sarris describes it best: ". I don't know how or where Ms. Ohayon found her hero, protagonist and prime mover, but there he is: Ivan Thompson, a 65-year-old cowboy with the unlikeliest of occupations—one that has earned him the self-coined nickname of "Cowboy Cupid." What he does is find Mexican brides for middle-aged American men who have soured on American women. His clients include Rick, a long-distance truck driver and ex-Marine, and Lee, a still-hopeful 70-year-old Vietnam veteran. Rick and Lee each pay $3,000 to Ivan for a 600-mile bus ride to the heart of Mexico in search of true and lasting love. Marriage is the only option for both parties—Ivan has no patience for men who just want a little quick sex. He turns out to be the most unexpectedly moral of matchmakers."

You can rent it on Netflix.com or buy it on Amazon.com Highly recommended!

Brilliantly produced little documentary about Ivan Thompson, a 60 year old New Mexico based matchmaker who, for a $3,000 fee, will help a U. S. man find a Mexican woman to marry. Ivan, who was a working cowboy before starting his love match business 16 years ago, calls himself the "Cowboy Cupid." He's wiry, energetic, cheerful, mannerly, highly principled, and a natural comedian.

The sleaze factor for this guy is non-existent. He is especially courteous to the Mexican women he lines up for his clients to meet and to the women's families. He uses personal ads run in Mexican newspapers in at least one city where we go along to observe him making contacts, Torreon, south of Juarez. He also has a Mexican woman in country who helps him with ad composition and communications with the women, who vary in their English proficiency.

He advertises to men domestically on roadside signs and I don't know how else. He says that when he started there were about 15 businesses like his, but since the advent of the Internet, he guesses that thousands of people now offer the sort of services he performs.

In the film we follow the fortunes of three of Ivan's clients: Rick, James and Lee, very different sorts. Things work out well for two of them: Ivan is successful in aiding them to establish solid relationships that end in marriage (Ivan attends one of the celebrations). A fascinating subtext to the story is the perceptions and experience of participants in these arrangements, with regard to cultural differences and gender.

The American men say that American women are too hard to please. The Mexican women say that Mexican men exploit and subjugate them. Each group feels that the opposite sex in the other culture by-and-large offers something better than what they are accustomed to back home. Ivan gets some nasty mail, especially from American women, calling him a scam artist, a shameful man who has no pride in his own country, a disgusting person who aids and abets the problem of illegal immigration. He just laughs all this off, and writes scathing rebuttals to his detractors.

This is Michèle Ohayon's third feature length documentary; I have not seen the two earlier ones, "Colors Straight Up" (1997), which depicts a theater arts program for inner city kids, or "It Was a Wonderful Life" (1993), about homeless women. "Cowboy" is highly accomplished: the photography, organization, editing and music (a wonderful series of Latin American numbers) are all first rate. Interesting shots of Mexican street life punctuate the scenes of Ivan hard at work in Torreon. The end credits are terrific: do not talk or leave your seat until Ivan himself tells you it is "the end." My grade: B+ 8/10

One should not make a scene about watching Cowboy Del Amor because it's really not that wonderful of a film worth making a scene about. It is a non-thrilling, time-killing, space-filling documentary that leaves the viewer no better, no worse, and an hour and a half older.

Michele Ohayon tries to offer unto the world a wonderful non-fiction piece about an old cowboy matchmaker who hitches American men with Mexican women. Instead, Ohayon spews forth this remarkably drab flick. And please understand, I use "flick" for "film" as I use "bitch" for "woman." "I was married to an American woman seventeen and a half years; she spoke perfect English and I never could understand her." These are the opening lines spoken by the "Cowboy Cupid" himself, Ivan Thompson. Part-time cowboy, full-time matchmaker, Ivan is so used to looking for women, he can't seem to keep one.

Cowboy Del Amor is a documentary following Ivan through the process he uses to "hitch up" lonely American men with unhappy Mexican women. It starts with taking a gringo down to Mexico and placing an ad in a local paper, then interviewing Mexican women until he finds one he likes. Simple as that.

Rick is the youngest of the fellows, in his late 30's or early 40's. He pays Ivan $3,000 to take him down to Torreon, Mexico to find a wife. After a few days of interviews, the hard work pays off and Rick meets Francis, a lovely Mexican woman who fits his ideal physical requirements: short and slender. They go on a few dates and end up falling for each other.

Lee is an older gentleman, entering his late 70's. The reason he wants to get married so late in his life? He doesn't want to die in his sleep and stay there for days without anybody knowing. He has no family, and wants someone to be there for him in these fading days. Irmalinda is a good woman, who just can't seem to find a good husband who appreciates her. She, like the other women, says that in America, women are treated equal unlike in Mexico, where the men use the women to their own advantage.

During the middle of the film, the pace drops from slow to a deadening crawl. The gringos' stories are put on hold while Ivan's story is elaborated a bit. Ivan talks about his ex-wife, Chayo, and how they met, married and divorced. Whether a conscious effort or not, the filmmaker decides to deviate from the somewhat interesting part of the movie to learn about why Ivan does what he does. The viewer doesn't really care, but Ivan's tale goes on. Finally, the plot picks up again at the very end with two weddings.

Ultimately, due to financial problems, Ivan moves out of his little home in the states and take his business to Mexico. After this the film, like Ivan, just kind of fades away. Though he is a decent man, the viewer isn't really disappointed to see him go with the closing credits.

With music that sounds like it's taken straight from a Sergio Leone film, cinematography that is nothing specially worth noting, and characters that are likable if not memorable, Michele Ohayon's Cowboy Del Amor is frayed and incomplete, with an ending that leaves the viewer unfulfilled. Neither good nor bad, it is trapped in the proverbial "cinematic limbo."