Apparently, America, venim!  sold more tickets in its opening weekend that any Romanian film this year. And it's easy to see why: it's a comedy, it's set in America, and the trailer looks fast and furious. Too bad the jokes are flat and the story is all over the place, because it could have been a much more fun ride.

The story features a group of provincial actors who arrive in New York at the invitation of the Romanian Cultural Centre. Bored with putting on the same show for the sleepy diaspora, they bump into a Romanian agent who promises quite a few extra bucks if they tour the country with him, and this is where their American adventure really takes of. The agent is sleazy, the shows are a joke, and the (rich) Americans they meet are rather eccentric, to put it mildly.

There's nothing new in placing a group of 'hillbillies' in a big city or in completely new surroundings and there are plenty of jokes on culture and identity clash to squeeze out of that, but Răzvan Săvescu's debut doesn't know how to make full use of these classic comedy elements. The story is just like the theme, it loses some characters and themes on its way and to make things worse, it's predictable and boasts so many clichés it makes your head spin. Neither the predictability nor the clichés would have been a problem if the film were more tongue-in-cheek, had an infectious energy, or simply better jokes, but unfortunately America, Here We Come! is no Little Miss Sunshine.

The actors do their best and some of them save quite a few scenes, like the wonderful Ion Sapdaru and Tania Popa as the middle-aged couple trying to cope with the mad tour and their marriage. But for every good actor there's a weak one, like the group's 'sexy' star, a bland Ioana Blaj, or Lost's Mira Furlan as a flamboyant patron of the arts who invites the actors to spend a night at her mansion, only to try to seduce the most bored of the bunch in such a ludicrous scene that I was crying with (unintentional) laughter.

America, Here We Come! is a decent movie to spend a few hours with but it could have been so much funnier. As it is, you'll forget it as soon as you leave the cinema. Răzvan Săvescu needs to work on his directing skills.

By Ioana Moldovan, columnist, ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com

(photo source - American Venim official website)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmnyxZ_ld5o