1/17/2004 » Film, Dance

The latest lame desi sighting on film, 'Along Came Polly': the main character's mom enters a 6th St. restaurant, plastic chili peppers dangling from the ceiling, calls the waiter a Native American and greets him in pidgin English. She very nearly makes a teepee sign and says 'How.' Reuben (Ben Stiller) corrects her, 'They're Indian!'

Of course, the restaurant is Bangladeshi. It's arch watching a tacked-on, politically correct fig leaf of a line which is totally pointless because it's wrong. Besides, no New Yorkers are that clueless: they know Indian restaurants.

'Along Came Polly' wasn't the awful, gross-out comedy that reviewers made it out to be. Hank Azaria's scuba instructor and his annoying-Frenchman accent steal the girl, the frame and the entire movie. A talented, talented man who, unfortunately, also does the voice of Apu on 'The Simpsons.'

One of the perks of living in Manhattan is recognizing all the book and film locales: Lower East Side, Gansevoort St. The salsa subplot seemed LA style, not New York: trick, very flashy, and I didn't recognize any of the dancers or instructors. And it was a bit breathless, glammed up in execution. But yeah, la salsa mía is sexy, no doubt about it :)