American Cousins (2003)

I let my wife pick the movies out, usually at a chain called Rogers. American cousins is of the quality of a made for TV movie. My wife rented the movie for they had one of HBO's 'Soprano's' on it. That is the hook to rent the movie and the 'Soprano's guy only made a small appearance in it. OK acting and directing. The viewer learns more about Scotland from watching the film. If you are going rent 2 movies this is the second one when you watch when you are tired and want to get sleepy. Entertaining enough, but not memorable. 5 out of 10. There is a romance in it, which my wife liked. This is not 'Snatch'. I think the lake they visited in the movie was used in a couple rock videos.

Beautiful,heart-warming film.That shows, that the true love of a man can't be stopped by any misfortune in the world. Shirley Henderson´s performance is just wonderful and Gerald Lepkowski does a great job playing the hard-working , forlorn Italian with the biggest heart on earth.

I like the way this movie tackled the subject and how it played out on the screen.While the two gangsters were very typical, cut from the same cloth one would expect them to be, and even willing to resolve problems the only way they knew how, still they were taught a valuable lesson. On the other hand, while yet maintaining their Italian roots, the 'cousins' were very much Irish and followed their own traditions and values. Following real life, sometimes the misguided perceptions of those outside of a group can be so pervasive, that even those belonging to that same group adopt those ideas about themselves. They then turn around and judge their peers within the group using the same measuring stick, wrong as it is. Anyone who strays away from that is looked at as strange or even worse ostracized. The 'stamp collecting' scene is one good example of this.Otherwise the movie was good with competent acting. The subtlety of the emotions of the characters as they progressively learned more about themselves from their cousins was quite well done by the lead actors - even Dan Hedaya toned down some of the usual facial Dan Hedayaisms. While it was based on the same love triangle theme seen a jillion times before, it was done differently here and in a unique setting - at least to us North Americans. Check it out.

All in all a nicely constructed film with some strong performances, although it seems to depict Scotland as an old fashioned out of date country, minor problem , its worth a look if you can ever find it on anywhere, I saw it as a one off in Glasgow where the film was shot and I feel it should get a chance.go see it for Scottish cinema.go see it for the British film industry.