CARLA’S SONG
The Carla of "Carla’s Song" is a panhandler and dancer on the streets of Glasgow. George is a good hearted working class schlemiel who is tired of his humdrum existence driving his double-decker bus - back and forth - back and forth - on the same route - seeing the same faces - day after day. One day Carla gets on his bus and beats the bus company out of a fare, and with an assist from George, and escapes from the authorities. George is reprimanded for his actions - again. (It seems he’s been on the wrong side of the company line before.) Carla intrigues George. He finds her, becomes infatuated with her frailty, falls in love, wins her trust, and discovers that she is on a guilt trip for having left her family, friends and lover back in her native war torn Nicaragua. She also bears the physical wounds that are a road map to her history. She is alternately, moody, suicidal, and loving - not necessarily in that order. George’s brief affair is just the thing he needs to beef up his boring life. But then again, this is a Ken Loach movie, so there has to be a social message.
Loach is noted for movies about the English working class, social causes, and political issues. I’m sad to say I’ve only seen two - "Poor Cow" and "Hidden Agenda". They are over two decades apart. "Poor Cow" came out in 1967 after the British working cinema of the early sixties had already made its imprint with movies like "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" and "This Sporting Life" His "Hidden Agenda" remains more timely because of the never ending human rights issues that are always with us. It was a low budget affair that mesmerized me with its deft political intrigue, quiet manner, and accomplished story telling. Brian Cox played an investigator who was onto a conspiracy to assassinate IRA sympathizers. Unfortunately, "Carla’s Song", doesn’t have the same story telling power as "Hidden Agenda", although human rights is at the core of this film as well.
Robert Carlyle is as likable as George as he was as the working class dad trying to make ends meet in "The Full Monty", but it’s not enough to sustain the plausibility of a relationship that is supposed to make him passionate enough to go to the other side of the world, specifically Nicaragua, to find out what his true love is all about. Albeit, director Loach wears his political sympathies on his sleeve in the guise of an ex-CIA operative played by Scott Glen who has seen the errors of his ways. He helps Carla and her people in their fight against the Contras. The movie works best when Loach let the mystery of Carla linger in the air. "Carla’s Song" should have sucked its viewers into her world and made them part of it. All it does is distance them with its didactic approach. "Carla’s Song" was a major disappointment.