Jorge is a young man from Ecuador suffering with extreme shyness, he washes dishes at a diner in Queens, NY and lives with a domineering roommate in Harlem. The only bright spot in his life is new waitress, Amy. Jorge becomes infatuated with her but he is also under the constant torment of a Rick, a fellow worker at the diner. Everyone except Amy is absorbed in their own problems without compassion or room for the problems of the other workers. In between sections of the movie are scenes of Jorge's pastel-colored escape reality with animated bunnies.Above Jorge's work station is a picture of how to help a person who is choking on food, it's just a part of the furnishings, the only person who sees and reads it is Jorge. A regular customer eating the Wednesday special of fish soup begins choking and no one knows what to do about it except Jorge but he is paralyzed by his shyness and fear. Amy and Jerry are trying to help but they don't know what to do, Amy calls for Jorge but he's struggling to get beyond his safety of the dishes. Can he help the customer, can he save a life, can he overcome his isolation and daily struggle to connect with people? Or, will he stay hidden in the back thinking about the picture with the instructions?
It's tough to connect with some of the characters, Amy is easy, Jerry is only interested in the business, Rick only thinks about himself, Jorge seems so lost. Somewhat slow and only with hope as the ending. 3* (just OK)
85 min independent drama directed by Steve Barron with Octavio Gomez Berrios as Jorge, Eugenia Yuan as Amy, Aaron Paul as Jerry, Mandy Patinkin as Rick.
Note: 3* from Blockbuster, 6.1 out of 10 imdb, 47% critics 47% audience Rotten Tomatoes
No comments:
Post a Comment