Paraiso Travel (2008)

Director:

Simon Brand

Writers:

Jorge Franco Ramos (writer)
Juan Manuel Rendon (writer)

Release Date:

10 July 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Worse than loving you is searching for you.

Plot:

Love drives two young lovers from Medellin, Colombia to seek fortune in New York City, only to find a harsh reality that will put to test their true love for one another.

Plot Keywords:

Drug | Prostitution | Nudity

Awards:

6 wins

Cast

Angelica Blandon	...	Reina
Raúl Castillo	...	Carlos
Aldemar Correa	...	Marlon
Margarita Rosa de Francisco	...	Raquel
Ana de la Reguera	...	Milagros
Germán Jaramillo	...	Don Hernan
John Leguizamo	...	Roger Pena
Chiko Mendez	...	Los Simpaticos Guitarrist
Edward Steven Mesa	...	Rehab Patient
Luis Fernando Munera	...	Don Pastor
Jesús Ochoa	...	Mexicote driver
Loukas Papas	...	Fernando
Panama Redd	...	Menacing man in car
Eddie Rosado	...	Los Simpaticos Conga Player
Vicky Rueda	...	La Calena
Ana María Sánchez	...	Patricia
Indhira Serrano	...	Madame Taylor
Bob Weston	...	Cop

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language, brief drug use and some violence.

Runtime:

USA:116 min | Colombia:110 min

Country:

USA | Colombia

Language:

Spanish | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #45399) | Mexico:C

Filming Locations:

Colombia

Company:

Paraiso Pictures

Not remotely anti-woman

Yes, one of the leading women turns out to be manipulative and appalling, but the woman at the restaurant and the woman who runs the stand next door are almost saintly, and even the woman who turns to topless dancing turns out to have a considerable heart.

This is not remotely a portrait of all Latin women or men. It is a story about one fairly naive guy who undergoes a series of adventures in a land where he can't speak the language and emerges with new knowledge.

Some of it is funny, some of it is heartbreaking. If I have any criticism -- and it's not much of one -- it's that the end titles are way more sophisticated stylistically than the movie they follow, and so they don't quite match. Big criticism, yes? Other than that, it's fascinating to see a film a lot of which takes place in a New York that seems to be a parallel and largely unseen world to the one Anglos like me live in. The idea that New York contains entire cultures that co-exist without much contact is intriguing.