| Reviewer Roundup |
| 1. |
 | Steve Rhodes |
| review follows |
|   |
| 2. |
| Harvey Karten |
| read the review |
| --- |
|
Review by Steve Rhodes
2½ stars out of 4
BREAD AND ROSES, by director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty, who
collaborated last on MY NAME IS JOE, tells a fictional story with a
documentary feel about organizing L. A. janitors. Two of the story's three
leads are sisters who work as non-union janitors in a typical skyscraper.
One sister, Maya (Pilar Padilla), is idealistically and bravely pro-union,
whereas the other, Rosa (Elpidia Carrillo), is pragmatically and just as
bravely anti-union. Both are completely believable and deliver strong
performances, but Carrillo steals the movie in a long dramatic scene towards
the end.
We see the workers verbally abused and threatened as they attempt to
organize. Although the bosses draw most of the writer's fire for
underpaying the janitors, the leaders of the union are criticized in one
scene in which the union organizer complains that the money they raise will
be thrown away like the $40,000,000 that the unions gave last year to the
Democrats.
Although it is a powerful film at times, Loach makes two strategic mistakes
that significantly and needlessly detract from its message. The first is
the casting of Adrien Brody as Sam, the paid union organizer. Brody, a Tom
Green look-alike who darts around like Harpo Marx, gives the movie a comedic
side that is jarringly out of place with the rest of the drama.
The second mistake concerns the subtitles. Since the characters would
naturally speak a mixture of English and Spanish, Loach keeps switching the
language that is being subtitled. In theory this may sound sensible, but in
practice it is a disaster. If you try to read the subtitles and they turn
out to be in a language you don't understand, then, by the time you stop
reading and start listening, you've missed the first few words of the
sentence and are frequently unable to parse what is being said. The reverse
is true if you're listening carefully, only to realize that you should have
been reading. Since these switches may occur several times per minute, it
is hard to keep track of the dialog. If Loach felt that dual language
subtitling were necessary, there are two ways that would have solved the
problem. Either have both languages subtitled all of the time -- Films
shown in multilingual countries like Switzerland do this -- or use different
colors with, say, white for English and yellow for Spanish.
"I believe in nothing but this," says Rosa, holding up her hand to her
sister. BREAD AND ROSES makes some powerful points for the union while
reminding us of everyone's believe in self-reliance. Were it not for the
miscasting of the comical Adrien Brody in a serious part and for the
distracting and constant switching of subtitles, I would have been able to
recommend BREAD AND ROSES.
BREAD AND ROSES runs 1:50. It is rated R for strong language and brief
nudity and would be acceptable for teenagers.
Copyright © 2001 Steve Rhodes
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out of 4
