Carla's Song

(Fox Lorber)

Robert Carlyle's George is a Glasgow busdriver who gives a break to a beautiful Nicaraguan refugee from the ongoing contra wars who earns her living dancing in the street. Although he loves Carla, George urges her to go back and find her boyfriend -- he even accompanies her. Released from the gritty accents and gray details of Glasgow, Ken Loach's lacerating edge and aching ambiguity soften into sloganeering here.