Just perfect...

A different way of telling a story

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The acting in this movie is really good.

When their mother dies, Jake and Josh Adams are left alone to run their farm. They seem capable enough doing the outdoor work and selling their produce, but when they try to do their own cooking, for example, they make a real mess of it. Josh, especially, seems incapable of taking care of himself. They can't find a maid to do the work.Jake goes to the library to learn how to find a wife. While he was there, I thought he had found a possible candidate. I won't say whether I was right. But he discovers a web site which leads him to a tour for men interested in Russian brides. The librarian sees the name of the web site, and her reaction is funny, because it COULD be porn.The amazing thing is that in the one scene where a maid turns the boys down, it is because she won't be paid enough. Now I can understand this since it is hard to make money farming. Yet this tour is very expensive; a maid might have been cheaper. Especially when one considers how much work should probably be getting done while they're gone--I'm sure the guy they hired to sell produce didn't do it for free.Jake takes care to watch how much money is being spent and whether he is getting a good value, and he does everything according to a system. Yet he is not particularly nice, charming or good-looking. Josh is good-looking, popular and fun-loving but not too bright, though women would want to take care of him. These guys are sort of like the Harper brothers of TV's "Two and a Half Men" in reverse--but on that show the take-charge guy is the one who shouldn't be in charge. And, unfortunately for this movie, the prudent arrangement is not necessarily the entertaining one. I think a lot of people will enjoy the movie, though. It's not the laugh-out-loud style I was hoping for, but both male leads give very good performances, and there are some funny situations. My problem with Tim Blake Nelson is that his uptight attitude makes him hard to like. Uptight can be entertaining, as Jon Cryer proves, but it requires a different sort of taste to enjoy Nelson. Though Jake's agonizing over every little detail is still funny. And David Arquette is capable of playing what could be a hick without making him a hick.One of the best things about the movie is what appears to be a series of interviews for a documentary (especially the parts appearing with the closing credits). Someone in the movie is, in fact, filming a documentary. And that someone is a woman who may be a candidate for the boys' bride. Yes, I said the BOYS' bride. This arrangement actually seems perverted to the father of one of the other candidates, which makes for another funny moment. Emily Mortimer has some impressive scenes in her role as the documentary producer. The reason she is in a lot of scenes is that Jake needs a translator, even though he is reluctant to appear in the film.One artistic touch is the fish feeder. Josh needs someone to feed his fish while he is gone, and time is measured by each feeding by an automatic fish feeder, which turns sort of like a clock whose hands advance rather than moving continuously.It was an okay movie. For some, it would be quite a good one.

Caught this on cable last night; I had never heard of it before but I always enjoy Nelson and Arquette, and I was pleased to discover a very charming, heart-felt little movie that develops in slow, subtle ways, without ever getting - you know the drill - heavy-handed or contrived.I'm generally a sucker for movies that start with the characters being one way and having them, through the course of the story, evolve and find themselves, and in this movie, the journey of the two brothers rings poignantly true, and there's a wonderful plot device (having the excellent Emily Mortimer as a journalist doing a documentary on the subject of 'mail-order wives') which is exploited in the best possible and most creative ways.

I am a big fan of Tim Blake Nelson, and he did not disappoint in this film about a real "mail order bride" service called "A Foreign Affair". In fact, the filmmakers distributed a copy of the catalog this company puts out. Otherwise, this might seem like a fabrication, I suppose. The film was about two mama's boys (actually mama favored the younger boy) whose mama dies and leaves them helpless and unable to take care of themselves. The older one (Nelson) decides they need a wife (singular...sort of a reverse polygamy), and goes to the library to check out the mail order bride industry. (Allyce Beasley has a funny cameo as the librarian). Then he drags his reluctant brother off to Russia in search of a wife for both of them. Several of the company's real life clients appear in the film, interestingly enough. I enjoyed it immensely, and I hope this somehow finds its way into theaters.

I haven't yet watched the film, as it has not been released in the uk. I have recently been on the tour, that the film was based on and I would recommend it to anyone. I took part in a documentary for local television and it was about the journey of two local guys, looking for love in St Petersburg, Russia. This will be shown on Tyne Tees Television from 21/2/03. To do it for real, was better then to act the part.