Bossa Nova

Finally a romantic comedy for adults that doesn't star Meg Ryan. Amy Irving's Mary Ann is an American widow living in Brazil who divides her time between teaching English as a second language and swimming in the ocean that claimed the life of her husband two years earlier. She falls for Pedro Paulo (the dashing Antonio Fagundes), a divorced Brazilian lawyer enrolled in her ESL class even though he's already fluent; and director Bruno Barreto surrounds the couple with a lively cast of characters: the soccer player who gets hot for Mary Ann when she teaches him how to swear in English, the know-it-all law intern who never turns off her Walkman, the sweet elderly tailor who listens to cloth before deciding what to make from it. With so many strong personalities, each one more eccentric than the next, the door was open for offbeat intelligent humor. Unfortunately, Barreto takes the road more traveled, stringing together mix-ups and miscommunications (all set to a bossa nova soundtrack) that are charming enough to amuse but too predictable to create any kind of climax. So we end up with just another romantic comedy.

-- Jumana Farouky