Taglines: It takes 4 to tango.
An American couple and a foreign couple test the limits of friendship and love when they switch partners and get married for green cards.
When Elena Elika Portnoy, a Russian immigrant studying in Miami and Carlos her Columbian boyfriend (Carlos Leon) run out of legal options for staying in the U.S. the couple switch partners with Betty and Mike, an American couple who are also their best friends. All is well until the stress of keeping up appearances to their family members and a savvy immigration enforcement agent eventually begins to take its toll.
Immigration Tango is a romantic comedy film starring Elika Portnoy, McCaleb Burnett, Carlos Leon, Ashley Wolfe, Avery Sommers, Beth Glover, Noelle Conners. The movie tells about the story of Elena, a Russian immigrant studying in Miami and Carlos her Columbian boyfriend run out of legal options for staying in the U.S.
Immigration Tango Review
There are made-for-television movies, and then there are movies that are made for television (or should have been). One such movie is Immigration Tango, a minor, sometimes likable romp through miscellaneous narrative clichés, all of them rendered with the snug medium shots and predetermined character arcs that are coin of the realm on the tube.
None of which should be surprising: director/co-writer David Burton Morris is a TV veteran stretching way back to China Beach. His most recent outing was Ice Dreams, a smooshy Hallmark item about a traumatized figure skater and the handsome owner of a dilapidated rink (seriously). Considering Tango is his first theatrical release in 16 years, there’s no real surprise in its not-quite-cinematic shortcomings.
So. Two couples in Miami Beach decide to swap partners – not for any sexy swinging reasons, but to help two of the four lovers stay in the country. The first pair are Carlos (Carlos Leon) and Elena (Elika Portnoy), legal aliens with soon-to-expire visas; he’s Colombian, she’s Russian. The second pair are their good friends Mike (McCaleb Burnett) and Betty (Ashley Wolfe), Wonder Bread Americans wrapping up their postgrad work; he’s finishing his dissertation on the sonnet form, she’s close to becoming a lawyer.
When Elena, seeking gainful employment and the renewed legal status it provides, knees her dirtball interviewer in the groin, he sics Immigration on her a few weeks early. What to do? Why, commit marriage fraud, of course. Mike resolves to just go ahead and marry Elena ASAP. Later on, Betty will marry Carlos. Sexual partners and romantic affiliations will remain unchanged, as will arrangements for living/sleeping/bickering.
They arrive at this decision with very little forethought, although Betty shrewdly characterizes it “the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Responds Mike: “What’s the worst that could happen?” My goodness, but Mike never saw Green Card. None of them did, or they might have anticipated visits from a beady-eyed I.C.E. official (Avery Sommers) who pokes her nose into Betty’s living room while Mike is busy pawing her on the couch.
You needn’t hear any more plot, for two reasons. First, you know it already. Second, the movie’s small charm lies not in meticulous plotting or rapier dialogue but in its affable nature and a few passable performances, including Leon — best known as Madonna’s ex-man-candy – as the totally goofy Carlos.
Immigration Tango
Directed by: David Burton Morris
Starring: Elika Portnoy, McCaleb Burnett, Carlos Leon, Ashley Wolfe, Avery Sommers, Beth Glover, Noelle Conners
Screenplay by: Martin L. Kelley, Robert J. Lee
Production Design by: Jea DeVoe, Nichole Ruiz
Cinematography by: Angel Barroeta, Taylor Gentry
Film Editing by: Lee Cipolla, Misha Tenenbaum
Set Decoration by: Kim Foehringer, Jim Gaynor
Costume Design by: Silvio Valdez
Music by: Dan Wool
MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexual content.
Studio: Roadside Attractions
Release Date: February 18, 2011
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