A SILENT LOVE
Directed & Written by: Federico Hidalgo.
Produced by: Pascal Maeder.
Director of Photography: François Dagenais.
Edited by: Maxime Chalifoux.
Music by: Robert Marcel Lepage.
Released by: Atopia.
Language: English & Spanish with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Canada. 100 min. Not Rated.
With: Vanessa Bauche, Noel Burton & Susana Salazar.

50-year old Canadian Norman Green (Noel Burton) arrives in a provincial Mexican city to finally meet his Internet-order bride Gladys, an attractive 28-year-old teacher. He haltingly speaks Spanish (but does have Mexican masks on the wall of his well-furnished home), and she knows only a little English. After their awkward introduction, Gladys makes a counter offer: She’ll marry Norman, but her mother must accompany her to Montreal.

It will be less a cultural and more a generational gap that will delineate this “First World Prince” and Gladys (played by Vanessa Bauche, the young wife in Amores Perros). Aloof and haughty, he scolds her like a parent when she embarrasses him in front of her mother, and she’s not as docile as she may first appear. Although the plot may be predictable, the characters are thankfully complicated. The actors wisely take their time, accompanied by a score that’s a cross between zydeco and mariachi. The title is, however, misleading, calling to mind a movie of the week. It was made for TV - in Canada. But performed with subtlety and offering no pat resolutions, the charming A Silent Love is a better than average film, in theaters or on TV. Kent Turner
October 29, 2004