An Historic Perspective
24 February 2002
Marisa Tomei is wonderful! There is a scene it which she is kneeling down in the water just as her boat arrives at Key West which is as sexy with cloth9ing as anything nude I've ever seen. ALfred Molina is great as the confused political prisoner.

The story begins as Alfred Molina sends his family off to America during a crackdown of the Cuban Communists. The former dictator Batista was very kind to capitalists. The country appeared to flourish but there was much poverty. Fidel Castro came to power and many of his political opponents were jailed or killed.

Marisa Tomei is a young worker in the sugar cane fields. News was difficult to come by there. When she gets to the U.S. she doesn't even know that John Wayne has died. (One of her great desires is to have sex with him)

Late in his administration President Carter declared an open door policy to anyone that was able to escape Cuba. As a result, Castro cleared his jails and hospitals of many criminals and insane people. It is in the midst of THIS that Marisa and Alfred meet. He as a released political prisoner trying to find the family he'd already sent to America years earlier, she as a poor worker trying to get to a better life. In the confusion of the long line at immigration and in order to get placed with a sponsor more quickly she claims him as her husband and an old man as her father in law.

For those of us who's families have been here long enough that we don't remember immigration this movie is a great reminder of why so many people have wanted to come here over the years.

You really can't go wrong with this...I bought it on recommendation of a friend and watch it a couple of times a year. It is among my personal top 10.
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