Cowboy del Amor
| Cowboy del Amor | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Michèle Ohayon |
| Produced by | Michèle Ohayon |
| Starring | Ivan Thompson |
| Music by | Joseph Julián González |
| Cinematography | Theo van de Sande |
| Edited by | Kate Amend |
Production company |
Emerging Pictures |
Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
English Spanish |
| Box office | $4,438 |
Cowboy del Amor is a 2005 documentary film directed by Michèle Ohayon.
Plot
Ivan Thompson is a 60-year-old former horse breeder who opened up a matchmaking service called The Cowboy Cupid, which is designed to set up American men with Mexican women for $3,000. The American bachelors consider the women in their own country too demanding and not suitably subservient. Thompson looks for prospective wives through personal ads in newspapers and visiting small Mexican towns, where he discovers that plenty of women are willing to take a shot at marriage with his "gringos" (as he calls himself and his men) whom they barely know if it means a green card and a roof over their head.
The film chronicles his attempts to set up three men. The first is a 48-year-old truck driver who lives on a mobile home next to his parent's house, whom he successfully introduces to a 20-year-old seamstress from Torreón. They marry and have a child. Another client is an American used car dealer who does not hit it off with a Mexican doctor. The last is a toothless veteran who marries a Mexican laundress. Finally Ivan quits the business and decides to go town to town in Mexico to pursue his own quest to find love. He was previously married to a Mexican woman but divorced her when she wanted to learn English.
Critical reception
The film won 5 awards at various film festivals including the South by Southwest Film Festival.[1] Review aggregator website Metacritic gave the film a 57 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[2]
From Marrit Ingman of The Austin Chronicle:
I've seen a lot of documentaries lately, but this pick from last year's South by Southwest film festival (and winner of the Documentary Feature award) is a shining example of how the format can use character as a prism... The result is a lyrical contrast of two contiguous cultures, worlds apart in their definitions of family and love but brought together by mutual awe and basic human need.[3]
From Elizabeth Weitzman of The New York Daily News:
It's both a compliment and a criticism to say that Michèle Ohayon's scrappy documentary ends much too quickly. Every moment of this story - about America's unlikeliest matchmaker - is fascinating. We just need more of them.
References
- ↑ Cowboy del Amor (2005) - Awards
- ↑ "Critic Reviews for Cowboy del Amor at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2006-02-03. Retrieved 2012-01-08.
- ↑ "Cowboy del Amor - Film Calendar". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2012-01-08.