Once we were strangers is tells the story of an Italian living in New York Illegally. the main character or the hero of this story is this Italian guy and his name is Antonio who has still stayed Italian despite of living in America. he falls in loves with an American girl. but that's not all , Antonio also has an Indian friend who gets married to an Indian girl.
Basically , this movie is about the clash of cultures in a very smooth and soothing way. very conservative Indian culture, self centered and economical based American culture and passionate and easy going Italian culture. this is the concept and the good part of the movie that I liked but having a good concept does not mean the writing would be good as well! I think the story had a great potential to be developed more. lack of enough drama was obvious in the story , lack of passion was even more obvious. the characters were very amateur and not mature enough. Indian characters were not good attachments for this story and they kind of killed the story of the Italian - American love. just when the audience is going to get to the depth of Antonio and Elena's love story , the Indians come up and distract the audience. Although I have to give it up to the writers that they slyly show how some immigrants change everything about themselves to become more American but some just live in America with out forgetting their own heritage just like our hero in this story , Sicilian Antonio. the choice of the nationality of Antonio was perfect because Italians seldom forget their heritage even after years of living in America. But I still stick to my point that the story of Indian lovers was more of distraction rather than being helpful to develop the main story.
All and all , I have to say I enjoyed this film because of it's brave subject , not all people now a days have the courage to tackle cultural subjects specially in North America.
Basically , this movie is about the clash of cultures in a very smooth and soothing way. very conservative Indian culture, self centered and economical based American culture and passionate and easy going Italian culture. this is the concept and the good part of the movie that I liked but having a good concept does not mean the writing would be good as well! I think the story had a great potential to be developed more. lack of enough drama was obvious in the story , lack of passion was even more obvious. the characters were very amateur and not mature enough. Indian characters were not good attachments for this story and they kind of killed the story of the Italian - American love. just when the audience is going to get to the depth of Antonio and Elena's love story , the Indians come up and distract the audience. Although I have to give it up to the writers that they slyly show how some immigrants change everything about themselves to become more American but some just live in America with out forgetting their own heritage just like our hero in this story , Sicilian Antonio. the choice of the nationality of Antonio was perfect because Italians seldom forget their heritage even after years of living in America. But I still stick to my point that the story of Indian lovers was more of distraction rather than being helpful to develop the main story.
All and all , I have to say I enjoyed this film because of it's brave subject , not all people now a days have the courage to tackle cultural subjects specially in North America.
