Karen Cries on the Bus

Reviews DVD Feb 17 2012

By Robert BellThe reason that Karen (Angela Carrizosa) is crying on the bus is that having recently left her cold, absent husband, she's lacking prospects. Her youth was wasted on the ideals of marriage, being an alacritous housewife that never had the opportunity to work or get the education necessary to further herself as an independent woman. Karen Cries on the Bus starts with her branching out on her own in a rooming house in the center of Bogota, flashing back to occasional marital discord while developing Karen's present plight as an unemployed woman desperate for work. Unable to find anyone willing to take a chance on a middle-aged female with no backing resume, she resorts to panhandling and theft in order to get by. Told quietly and without any melodramatic narrative embellishments or overly maudlin symbolism, this smart Columbian drama details the road to self-actualization and independence without ever needing to spell out its agenda. We understand her struggle between the familiar (a successful writer asks her to move to Argentina with him) and the unknown (she might be able to get a job at a bookstore), especially factoring in the dominant cultural assertion that implies women are merely material collectables for male accomplishment and vitality. And despite this subtle feminist agenda, there's never any unnecessary vilification of men or contrived subplot about female empowerment. First-time director Gabriel Rojas Vera is more interested in realistically capturing a character in the midst of a crisis, dealing with it in the most logical manner possible. Included with the DVD is another film about a woman branching out in a lower class system to make ends meet independently. This Australian short, Lessons from the Night, follows a Bulgarian immigrant through a night of janitorial work while she describes in voiceover how she wound up in Australia doing manual labour after being a high-ranking government worker in her home country.
(Film Movement)

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