Carmo, Hit the Road

Much of writer-director Murilo Pasta's career has been in the U.K. where he worked for BBC TV and others, but you wouldn't know it from Carmo, Hit the Road, a gritty, humorous, entertaining road picture set primarily in poor, funky, lawless South American towns that are about as British as the tango. Maria do Carmo (Mariana Loureiro) hails from such a place, and she's desperate to get out. When Marco (Fele Martínez), a wheelchair-bound smuggler, rescues her from a would-be rapist, she sees a way to accomplish her goal. Despite suggesting elements of It Happened One Night, Martinez and Loureiro aren't exactly Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; Carmo may be a sexy free spirit, but she's also a bit of a slut; and she and Marco, who's hardly a saint himself, argue constantly and profanely. But the pair gradually bond as they flee from a couple of bandidos who want to commandeer Marco's truck and take off with his stash of stolen stereo equipment. The film sports plenty of violence, and most of the characters are drunks, thieves, liars, gamblers, and worse, but it's easy to root for Carmo and Marco and difficult not to like a movie with a soundtrack that includes hip-hop, Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora, and a version of “Hit the Road Jack” in Spanish. Recommended. (S. Graham)