It is a performances centric movie

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Back in 1969, director Ken Loach made one of the best coming of age films, which is currently ranked in the number seven spot of ten films for the British Film Institute. That movie is called 'Kes', and is about a boy and his falcon. Criterion even added it to their collection. It was then that Mr. Loach came into the spotlight from directing television series to feature films and fell into his own unique style, which was focusing more on characters than anything else really.Over the years, Loach has shown us the good and bad sides of ourselves, usually using some sort of political or social backdrop to tell his story, which is the case in his 1996 film 'Carla's Song'. This film is almost like two films in one, as it drastically takes a turn mid way through and offers up something different. The film follows a Scottish bus driver named George (Robert Carlyle), who wants more out of life than driving a bus and coming home to his fiancé. He seems to be a good man and thoughtful as he allows people who can't pay the bus fare on his ride. Perhaps he feels like a superhero to them, making the world a better place for people less fortunate than him.He soon crosses paths with a Nicaraguan woman named Carla (Oyanka Cabezas), who he immediately seems very fond of, even though she can't afford to pay the fare for his bus, but he looks the other way. After their first encounter, he begins to see her everywhere, which we soon realize, he is pretty much stalking her. He never releases a creepy vibe, but we all know it's there, as he is very persistent to get to know her without being violent. It's a very strange and odd feeling to watch this character unfold, as we might expect something awkward or sadistic to happen at any moment.Even when Carla pushes away his advances and tells George that she has a boyfriend back in Nicaragua that she hasn't seen in a while, he buys her and himself tickets to go find him, even though they are having a very weird love affair. This is where the film changes, as these two people enter Nicaragua during the U.S. backed Contra war against the Sandinistas. George finally sees all of the horrible chaos an destruction that Carla has been through by traveling to her home, as they look for her family and lover.This is where George sees Carla for who she really is, and it takes a toll on him. Carlyle is great in this role and very different from his work in 'Trainspotting' and '28 Weeks Later'. You never know if you want to like or root for George, and Carlyle plays this mysterious "every man" to a tee. While the acting is spot on, the story and narrative loses its balance from time to time here. It's hard to focus on the first half of the film, and then change into something as drastic and chaotic as these two characters wander the streets of a war torn Nicaragua. Loach does tend to surprise us though with the abnormal ending and twists, which most filmmakers and studio executives today would not allow, which makes 'Carla's Song' such a unique film, despite its flaws.

In CARLA'S SONG, Ken Loach focuses his brand of UK social realism on The Contras and Sandinistas. The film recounts the story of a Scottish bus driver, played by Robert Carlyle, who falls in love with a beautiful woman from Nicaragua. She has been physically and psychically wounded in the revolutionary conflict of that country, and they both journey to Nicaragua in an attempt put her life back together. At face value, this seems like a weak or far fetched premise for a film, yet CARLA'S SONG demonstrates a very real and intense chemistry between the two lovers. Robert Carlyle is most convincing with his extemporaneous ad libs and off-hand comments, and they really added a sincere warmth to his character. However, subtitles were desperately needed for the Spanish speaking parts of the film, and a large chunk of the Scottish dialog was nearly uninterpretable. Overall, CARLA'S SONG renders an accurate portrait of 1980's working poor in Scotland, and a realistic view of the Sandinista Freedom Fighters as seen through the prism of a world class love affair.

I saw this first at the Watershed in Bristol, a celebration of that city's twinning arrangement with the Nicaraguan town of Puerto Morazan. The town had just been devastated by Hurricane Mitch and the ensuing floods, yet the resourceful people of Morazan had emerged from the disaster without loss of life, and yet again they got on with their lives. They are used to this, after generations of bouncing back from flood, volcano, earthquake, military dictatorship and the hegemony of the global megacorporations backed by the US government. And their representatives tell us that Ken Loach's film gives their small voice a hearing.This is my favourite amongst Loach's films. It combines its political message - an important one - with comedy and a touching love story. It should be better known.

Oyanka Cabezas' character was never in doubt as the film unwound; she was completely believable. Indeed the film took us on a journey from a care-fee bus driver in Glascow (Robert Carlyle - "The Full Monty") to the CIA-operated civil war in Nicaragua where Cabezas seeks her former lover who has been brutalized by the CONTRAS. Loach did a masterful job capturing the atmosphere of that bleak episode. He allows us to catch a glimpse of what changes would or may occur in humans if given the opportunity to escape poverty and ignorance. But the forces that would maintain the staus quo are far too powerful to allow the Nicaraguans to reach that goal. If only we could understand Carlyle's English; the easiest for me to comprehend what he was saying was when he was speaking with Cabezas, whose English was halting, yet understandable. If only Carlyle did not drive that bus in Nicaragua - - - somehow I knew that was meant to be.