Someone Else's America

Sweet, cuddly, befuddled illegal immigrants simultaneously pining for home and searching for the American dream...check, please. To be fair, director Goran Paskaljevic does attempt to inject a bit of social realism now and then-there's an interesting subplot involving the protagonist's son, for example, who uproots his entire family in order to come to the U.S. and make a quick buck-but basically this is a rather treacly fable, populated by characters about as genuine as, but much less funny than, Balki in Perfect Strangers. Miki Manojlovic (Underground) does fine work as Bayo, our hero from former Yugoslavia, but Tom Conti mugs up a storm, and his Spanish romantic sad sack in this film is virtually indistinguishable from his Greek romantic sad sack in Shirley Valentine. Get this man a new shtick. Not recommended. (M. D'Angelo)