CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 02/10/06

Cowboy Up

By Den shewman

Cowboy del Amor (Documentary)

Written by Michèle Ohayon (also directed)
Based on the life of Ivan Thompson

Loneliness, declares Ivan "Cowboy Cupid" Thompson, is "a bad disease that medicine can't cure," but Academy Award-nominated documentarian Michèle Ohayon (1997's Colors Straight Up) does a good job of dissecting it, and Cupid himself, when she trains her camera on this Southwest matchmaker who for $3,000 takes American men on an 11-hour bus ride to meet Mexican women (including physicians and attorneys). Ohayon picked up a WGA nomination for this "documentary comedy" that follows three of Ivan's clients -- truck driver Rick, used car dealer James, and retired veteran Lee -- letting Thompson narrate his work life and his own spotty personal past. Cowboy del Amor weaves these threads into a tapestry that is equal parts romanticism (history buff Thompson can't bear to read Pancho Villa's cavalry charge against American machine guns, it's just too painful) and provincialism (after being "treated pretty bad by my gringo wife," Thompson married and divorced the same Mexican woman twice -- the second time because she got "Americanized"). The end result paints a detailed portrait of a flawed man who is better at managing others' love lives than his own -- the film includes two weddings and a birth -- and shows more about the workings, failings, and compromises of love than a dozen viewings of Brokeback Mountain.

Cowboy del Amor

Not rated; 86 min.

Opens this weekend in Los Angeles and New York.
Click here for the release schedule

Jason Fogelson is a freelance writer. He served as Literary Manager/Director of Play Development at the Public Theater in New York under Joseph Papp, and as a lit agent for the Gersh Agency and the William Morris Agency. He's currently developing several feature film and documentary projects as a producer, writer, and director. You can read Jason's car reviews at About.com and his weblog at 4driversonly.com.

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