Two Expat Movies: American East and Sabah: A Love Story

Both these movies deal with the clash of Middle Eastern cultures in a western setting, but they’re as different as East and West.

American East has a gritty feel, starting with the opening sequence which shows a post-9/11 terror alert level red indicator. The newsfeed-style background narration places the action in LA, with rumors of a newly uncovered local terrorist plot swirling.

Mustafa and his son Mohammed go to the airport to meet an arriving cousin. Mohammed wanders off and Mustafa, racing through the airport calling out his name, is arrested. After he is questioned and his car is searched, he is released.

Mustafa is an Egyptian American widower, living with his younger sister and his son and daughter. He’s a businessman with a falafel café and a taxi. The café is falling apart, with a faulty air conditioner and leaking pipes, but Mustafa dreams of opening up a real Middle Eastern restaurant, the finest in LA.

He also feels a duty to see his sister Salwah married, and to reclaim land in Egypt which his father had lost. As Salwah, a nurse, points out to him, he has one foot in America and one foot back in Egypt. He needs to choose.

Mohammed, in typical rebellious adolescent fashion, doesn’t want to be a Muslim. Daughter Leila smokes dope. The café is patronized by a gossipy Iraqi Christian and a bellicose anti-Jewish Muslim Arab, who constantly watches Al Jezeera TV and sees conspiracies everywhere. Omar, the young man who drives his taxi, is an aspiring actor who is tired of playing terrorists and needs to support a newly pregnant fiancée. And Sabir, the cousin who flew in, is there for business – to claim Salwah as his bride and take her back to Egypt to make babies.

Mustafa locates a possible site for the new venture, and shares his plans with a friend, another businessman who has capital to invest. Sam agrees to partner with him in the project. Sam just also happens to be a Jew, whose family business partners don’t trust Muslims.

Stir all these ingredients together and you get a real mess.

I suspect the movie makers had the intention of showing the everyday problems faced by Middle Easterners in the US following the terrorist acts that occurred on September 11, 2001. They certainly portrayed a number of characters with different viewpoints and backgrounds, and showed them all with sympathy and understanding. But the most powerful movies are those where the story makes the statement, and in this movie the makers did too much lecturing.

This movie is worth a watch, but it was ultimately disappointing.

Completely different is Sabah: A Love Story. This film also deals with the Arab community in a Western setting, but on a more intimate scale.

Sabah is a single woman in her early forties who lives with and takes care of her widowed mother in Toronto. Forbidden to work by her domineering brother, who takes responsibility for his mother’s and sister’s finances and spoils his wife with expensive gifts, she lives a dull life, circumscribed by custom and family.

Then Sabah plucks up her courage and steps out of her small circle, sneaking off to swim at the local fitness center. There she meets Stephen after he accidentally snatches up her towel instead of his when he leaves the pool.

Their first meetings are painfully awkward, but their attraction to each other is palpable. Stephen is not a Muslim, but is interested in learning about Sabah’s culture. However, she is afraid to let him too far into her life because of her family’s disapproval.

Then the family is thrown into turmoil when Sabah’s brother admits he’s on the verge of bankruptcy and that he cannot continue supporting Sabah and their mother. In short order, Sabah introduces Stephen to the family, goes to work and marries Stephen.

Sabah was filmed in 2005, post-9/11. Perhaps because it is a Canadian rather than a US film it focuses on the warmth and personality of its characters rather than the grittiness of their lives. The issues of being expats with a foot in each country are the same, but the treatment is completely different. I enjoyed Sabah and would watch it again.

Kate & Leopold

Starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman

Leopold, Duke of Albany, is spending 1867 in New York City, sent there by his family in disgrace because he is 30 and not yet married. While watching a speech by the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, Leopold sees someone behaving oddly in the crowd.

Later that evening, at the ball where he has promised his uncle he would announce an engagement to some wealthy young lady to be determined, Leopold again sees the stranger. The man turns tail and runs, Leopold gives chase and they end up on the upper levels of the half-built Brooklyn Bridge where they wrestle and fall.

Leopold wakes up the next day in a very, very strange place. “Where am I?” he demands. “This is not New York!” It is, but it’s the New York of 2001, not 1867. Stuart, a scientist in 2001, had found a time portal that just happened to be in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Leopold meets Kate, Stuart’s upstairs neighbor, former girlfriend and a career-minded research marketer. Stuart tries to explain who Leopold is, and Kate refuses to believe him. Kate has no use for Leopold until he helps her retrieve her bag from a purse snatcher and her attitude toward him thaws.

Kate is under pressure at work, where she is one of two employees being considered to run the New York office. Leopold helps her recognize her boss’ posturing and self-serving behavior and shows her that it’s possible for ethical behavior to exist in business.

Naturally, Kate and Leopold fall in love. Kate asks, “Do you miss where you’re from?” Leopold responds, “I miss its rhythm.” They spend an idyllic Saturday together, and Kate wishes for a life that’s paced to 1867.

Monday is a momentous day. Kate gets the promotion, and Leopold sadly takes advantage of the portal’s opening again to return to his own time. Stuart warns him that he will arrive back during the same day he left, and that the day, or part of it, may be repeated. We watch as Leopold enters his uncle’s house and has the same conversations with the same people, enters the same ballroom, and catches sight of Stuart exactly as it happened before.

Meanwhile Kate is in the exact same house – in 2001 – attending a company event which will present her as the new Vice President.

But wait! Stuart gets back the roll of developed film from his foray into 1867 – it was his use of the camera which first caught Leopold’s attention that day – and sees something very surprising. He gate crashes the company event and gives the pictures to Kate.

The lovers are reunited – no spoiler there, but I won’t tell you how it comes about. There are a few fun little twists and turns along the way.

So how is this fluffy little romantic comedy an expat movie? Living an expat life is all about adjusting to different cultures and customs. What could be more different than life in the horse and carriage days and life in the 21st-century fast lane with its noise, automobiles, airplanes, remote control everything, Palm Pilots, cell phones, computers, dishwashers and automatic toasters?

Leopold adjusts beautifully without losing any of his authenticity. One only hopes Kate can do the same.

A Review of the Movie Flower Drum Song

“A hundred million miracles are happening every day.”

That’s the opening song in the movie, Flower Drum Song, and the theme that sparkles throughout the entire musical. Flower Drum Song is also the story of cultures on collision courses with each other – East vs. West, traditional vs. modern, elegance vs. tawdriness, classical music vs. rock ‘n roll – and the resolution of those cultural conflicts is the real miracle.

Mei Li and her father arrive in San Francisco as stowaways on a ship from Hong Kong. She is a “picture bride,” contracted by Mrs. Fong to marry her son, Sammy. Sammy has other ideas, however, and persuades Madame Liang to introduce Mei Li to her brother-in-law Mr. Wang as a potential bride for the son of the house, Ta.

Mr. Wang is a very traditional Chinese man, a widower raising his two boys with the help of his wife’s sister. Ta, the elder son, is about to graduate from college and plans to attend law school. The younger son, San, speaks American slang and loves baseball and rock ‘n roll. When a girlfriend observes that Mr. Wang “sounds very Chinese,” Ta explains:

“He is. Completely Chinese. And that’s good. It’s good for my brother, ‘cause he’s completely American. And I’m both and sometimes the American half shocks the Oriental half and sometimes the Oriental half keeps me from showing a girl what’s really on my mind.”

The Wang home appears very traditional, with a peaceful garden and gorgeous Chinese furniture and art. The contrast with the busy streets of Chinatown and Sammy Fong’s exuberant and slightly risqué nightclub is palpable. But inside the home, the famous Generation Gap of the 50’s and 60’s makes it appearance. “What are we going to do about the other generation?” sings Mr. Wang in exasperation? Meanwhile, San asks the same question out in the garden.

Mr. Wang wants to choose a bride for Ta, who tells him,

“This is not China. This is a different world. And here a man has the right to choose his own wife.“

“When that day come when you can think for yourself, I will let you know”

snaps his father.

There’s a big divide between the nightclub culture and the Wang family as well.

Sammy’s girlfriend Linda, the headline dancer in the club, is secretly dating Ta and
Sammy has tried to offload Mei to the Wangs. Sammy makes no attempt to disguise who he is, but Linda acts very demure and polite when she’s with Ta and his family. The two cultures collide dramatically when Sammy invites the Wangs to dinner at the nightclub and Linda performs.

Of course, because it’s a musical, all the conflicts are happily resolved by the end. The right people marry each other and parents are satisfied with their children – at least for the moment. It’s a miracle!

EM Forster’s classic novel of India under the British Raj examines the dark side of the expatriate experience. Although not absolutely necessary, it helps to understand a little of the history of England’s presence in India, because, central to the novel’s core, is the oppressor’s fascination with and repugnance of the oppressed – and vice versa.

Cast of Characters

Forster introduces his characters in order of importance, beginning with the Marabar Hills, 20 miles away from the city of Chandrapore. And, make no mistake, Marabar becomes the central character, acting on the human characters in dramatic and unexpected ways!

Next we meet Dr. Aziz, a young Muslim physician who works for the British in their hospital, and a group of his friends. They are discussing whether it is possible to be friends with an Englishman. Hamidullah, a lawyer who was trained in England, takes the position that it is possible – but only in England, not in India. He tells Aziz:

“It is impossible here, Aziz! The red-nosed boy has again insulted me in Court. I do not blame him. He was told that he ought to insult me. Until lately he was quite a nice boy, but the others have got hold of him.”

“Yes, they have no chance here, that is my point. They come out intending to be gentlemen, and are told it will not do. Look at Lesley, look at Blakiston, now it is your red-nosed boy, and Fielding will go next. Why, I remember when Turton came out first. It was in another part of the Province. You fellows will not believe me, but I have driven with Turton in his carriage – Turton! Oh yes, we were once quite intimate. He has shown me his stamp collection.”

“He would expect you to steal it now. Turton! But red-nosed boy will be far worse than Turton!”

“I do not think so. They all become exactly the same, not worse, not better. I give any Englishman two years. … And I give any Englishwoman six months. All are exactly alike.”

After some further discussion, Hamidullah states, “The English take and do nothing. I admire them.”

“We all admire them” is the response.

Aziz receives an urgent message from Major Callender, his superior at the hospital, ordering Aziz to report to him immediately. When Aziz arrives at the bungalow he finds Callender has gone out, leaving no message, and Callender’s wife and another English woman snub Aziz.

He stops on his way home at his favorite mosque, and suddenly an Englishwoman steps out into the moonlight. He shouts at her:

“Madam, this is a mosque, you have no right here at all; you should have taken off your shoes; this is a holy place for Moslems.”

“I have taken them off.”

“You have?’

“I left them at the entrance.”

“Then I ask your pardon. … I am truly sorry for speaking.”

“Yes, I was right, was I not? If I remove my shoes, I am allowed?”

“Of course, but so few ladies take the trouble, especially if thinking no one is there to see.”

“That makes no difference. God is here.”

They converse, and Aziz learns that she is the mother of City Magistrate Ronald Heaslop, the red-nosed boy. She has walked over from the Club, where the English are watching a performance of a play she had seen in London several years before.

Adela Quested has traveled from England with Mrs. Moore to decide whether she wants to marry Ronny Heaslop. After her adventure at the Mosque, Mrs. Moore returns to the Club, where Adela greets her with the statement: “I want to see the real India.” She repeats it to Ronny later.

“The request struck him as comic, and he called out to another passer-by: ‘Fielding! How’s one to see the real India?’ ‘Try seeing Indians,’ the man answered, and vanished.

“ ‘As if one could avoid seeing them,’ sighed Mrs. Lesley

“ ‘I’ve avoided,’ said Miss Quested. ‘Excepting my own servant, I’ve scarecely spoken to an Indian since landing.’

“ ‘Oh, lucky you.’

“ ‘But I want to see them.’

“She became the centre of an amused group of ladies. One said, ‘Wanting to see Indians! How new that sounds!’ Another, ‘Natives! Why, fancy!’ A third, more serious, said, ‘Let me explain. Natives don’t respect one any the more after meeting one, you see.’

“ ‘That occurs after so many meetings.’

“But the lady … continued: … ‘I was a nurse in a Native State. One’s only hope was to hold sternly aloof.

“ ‘ Even from one’s patients?’

“ ‘Why, the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die,’ said Mrs. Callender.”

Mr. Turton, the Collector offers Adela a Bridge Party.

“He explained to her what that was – not the game, but a party to bridge the gulf between East and West; the expression was his own invention, and amused all who heard it.

“ ‘I only want those Indians whom you come across socially – as your friends’ Adela told him.

” ‘Well, we don’t come across them socially,’ he said, laughing.”

Friendship and Betrayal

The Bridge Party is duly held, and it is an utter failure. The British, with the exception of Adela and Mrs. Moore and the Turtons, whose duty it is to be hospitable, hold themselves aloof in one area, and the Indians stay in another area. The few conversations are stilted.

Ronny explains to his mother, “We’re not pleasant in India, and we don’t intend to be pleasant. We’ve something more important to do.” His mother thinks he talks

“like an intelligent and embittered boy. … One touch of regret – not the canny substitute but the true regret from the heart – would have made him a different man, and the British Empire a different institution.”

Mrs. Moore and Aziz meet again at a party given by Mr. Fielding, the Principal of Government College, at his school. Adela Quested is there, as well as a Hindu friend of Fielding’s, Narayan Godbole.

In an expansive moment, Aziz invites them all to come see him, then turns the invitation into an expedition to the Marabar Hills because he is ashamed of his shabby bungalow and doesn’t want to expose it to the English ladies.

The Marabar Hills, which look beautiful from the distance of Chandrapore, are known for their numerous caves. The caves are absolutely round and featureless, and have the distinction of turning every sound made within to a resonating “boum.”

The expedition starts cheerfully at the train station, but disaster ensues. Before the end of the day, Adela Quested is in the hospital, Aziz is in jail and Fielding has been cast out by the English. Levels of mutual distrust among the British and Indian communities for one another become elevated to new highs.

Forster skillfully weaves together threads of misunderstanding, isolation, mistrust, cultural and gender differences, betrayal and vengeance. The story moves slowly and introspectively.

In the end, Forster shows that at least one Indian and one Englishman can be friends, despite their lack of cultural understanding.

A Passage to India is not an easy book to read. The subject matter is disturbing, and the writing style is densely analytical without a lot of action. However, anyone interested in the cultural aspects of living in another country can learn a lot about the pitfalls of doing so by reading this novel.

Are they any expat-themed books you would like to see reviewed here? Let me know by sending an email or leave a comment.

I’ve been posting reviews of books and movies with an expat theme every month for the past six months or so, and I really enjoy this feature of the Future Expats Forum. It forces me to think about books and films in a new way, and to exercise all those writing skills I learned as an English Lit major back in the dark ages when I attended college.

I intend to offer one book and one movie review monthly throughout 2010 as well. I still have some favorites to discuss, and I’ve been making a list of new reading and viewing.

Do you have any particular favorites you’d like to see discussed here? Books should be readily available either to buy or borrow from a library, and movies should be easy to rent or buy as well. (Please don’t suggest something that’s been out of print for 20 years. Even if I can find it to review, you all wouldn’t be able to read or watch it if you wanted to.)

Within those constraints, what would you suggest? Just click on the Comment link below to add to the discussion.

Well, it’s not exactly an expat movie, although various characters do travel to and stay in other countries. But it’s a sweet Christmas-time romantic comedy, so I thought it worthy of a review at this sentimental time of year. It also features an unusual character – the Home Exchange website, a great place to arrange for low-cost living arrangements in another country.

The film was written and Directed by Nancy Meyers, and stars Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black and Jude Law. It’s about love – unabashedly and with a great many words of dialog. It’s also about opening up to change, in this case geographic change leading to important internal growh.

Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet), a young British journalist, treasures an unrequited passion for co-worker Jasper Bloom (Rufus Sewell). Amanda Woods, movie trailer editor extraordinaire, has just broken up with her live-in boyfriend Ethan.

Scene: The newspaper’s company Christmas party. “And then, there’s another kind of love: the cruelest kind. The one that almost kills its victims. It’s called unrequited love. Of that I am an expert,” says Iris. “You know,” Iris’ friend remarks, “I’ve just noticed how pathetic you are.”

Suddenly, Jasper’s engagement to Sarah Smith-Alcott (Circulation, 19th floor) is announced. Iris leaves, and dissolves into floods of tears upon reaching the safety of her home, a darling little cottage in Surrey.

Cut to LA, where movie trailer editor Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) is throwing shoes at cheating boyfriend Ethan and throwing him out. No tears here! Amanda hasn’t cried since she was 15 years old. Instead, Amanda decides to go away by herself over Christmas. She searches the internet and finds the Home Exchange website. Amanda likes the looks of the little Surrey cottage and impulsively sends a message of interest.

Amanda and Iris exchange instant messages. “Where are you?” Iris asks, adding “Please say somewhere far away.” Amanda has one question for Iris: are there any men in your town? “Zero,” Iris answers. They agree to trade houses – the next day!

The huge differences in their styles of living are immediately apparent: on the airplane, Iris is squashed between two oversized, middle-aged ladies in coach, while Amanda stretches out in her chair-cum-bed in First Class, a stack of books on the table next to her and a pink-striped mask protecting her eyes from the light.

On arrival, Iris finds warm temperatures, verdant growth, colorful bougainvillea cascading over high walls, beautiful large homes, and the blue Pacific Ocean. Amanda faces snow, cold, and a lane so narrow the driver won’t attempt it so she has to hike, with her oversized suitcase, to the cottage.

Iris dances with excitement when she discovers the swimming pool, restaurant-sized kitchen, media room with an enormous flat-screen TV (as well as a terrifying amount of equipment and thousands of DVDs), an exercise room, an in-home movie-editing studio, and a bedroom with curtains that create a blackout with the touch of a button.

Amanda is so bored after six hours at the charming cottage that she plans to return to LA the next day.

Iris befriends Arthur Abbot (Eli Wallach), Amanda’s elderly neighbor. Graham Simpkins (Jude Law), Iris’ brother, shows up at the cottage at 1 AM on Amanda’s first night, after a long session at the pub. He’s insanely good looking, somewhat drunk, and very surprised to see Amanda instead of Iris.

Amanda explains that they’ve switched houses for two weeks, and Graham asks, “People actually do that?” “Apparently,” Amanda replies.

Graham asks how it’s going for her, and she tells him she is leaving on the noon plane. “I came here on a stupid whim,” she states.

“Honestly, I’ve never thought about anything less. It’s very unlike me. . . I didn’t want to be alone over the holidays, and I guess I thought that, if I were somewhere else, I wouldn’t realize that I was alone but then I got here and I’ve never felt more alone in my life.”

Graham ends up spending the night, and the next morning Amanda arrives at Heathrow for the flight home.

Meanwhile, Iris has spent a restful night alone, and wakes up to bright sunshine (once she remembers to flick the switch to open the blackout curtains.) Arthur Abbott, former Hollywood screenwriter, introduces her to the Hollywood of bygone times through his anecdotes and movie recommendations (all starring strong women with gumption). Arthur asks why she came to LA for Christmas, and Iris admits she is trying to get away from an ex-boyfriend who just got engaged. “So he’s a schmuck,” Arthur announces calmly. Arthur explains,

“In the movies, we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady. But for some reason you’re behaving like the best friend.”

“You’re so right,” Iris replies. “You’re supposed to be the leading lady of your own life, for God’s sake.”

Miles, a young movie music composer, and Iris become friends as well.

After several romantic interludes, Amanda discovers that Graham is not the footloose bachelor she thought, but a widower with two young daughters. Their situation suddently goes way beyond complicated. Graham tries to explain:

“Until I get to know somebody really well, it’s easier for me to be a normal, single guy because it’s way too complicated for me to be who I really am. . . . I have no idea how to date and be this.”

On Christmas Eve, Iris and Miles are in the video store together (with a cameo by Dustin Hoffman as himself) when Miles sees his actress girlfriend Maggie, who was supposed to be on location in New Mexico, walk by clutching another man. He rushes outside and confronts her, returning dejected. Back at the house, Iris tries to console him and describes her own situation with Jasper. Iris tells Miles:

“And after all that, you’ll go somewhere new and you’ll meet people who’ll make you feel worthwhile again. And little pieces of your soul will finally come back. And all those years of your life that you wasted, that will eventually begin to fade.”

Graham and Amanda try to figure out whether they can maintain their relationship long distance. Miles and Iris are lunching when he gets a phone call from Maggie and rushes off.

Jasper shows up unexpectedly in LA, looking for Iris’ editing help on a book he’s writing. “I don’t want to lose you, babe,” he tells Iris. Jasper suggests they sneak off to Venice together after she comes back to London.

“Are you free to do that?” she asks him. “Are you not with Sarah any more? Is that what you’ve come here to tell me?”

“I wish you could just accept knowing how confused I am about all this,” Jasper responds.

“Ok, let me just translate that. So, you are still engaged to be married.”

“Yes, but. . .”

Iris explodes at him.

“But you waltzing in here on my lovely Christmas holiday and telling me that you don’t want to lose me whilst you’re about to get married somehow newly entitles me to say ‘it’s over.’ This twisted, toxic thing between us is finally finished! I’ve got a life to start living! And you’re not going to be in it. Now, I’ve got somewhere really important to be, and you have got to get the hell out.”

Iris shoves Jasper out the door and slams it in his face. Later that evening, Miles tells her he’s through with Maggie, and asks what Iris is doing for New Year’s Eve. “I’ll be back in England by New Year’s Eve,” she responds. “I’ve never been to England,” Miles tells her. “If I go over there, will you go out with me New Year’s Eve?” “Love to.”

Meanwhile, Amanda and Graham have a serious parting. As she leaves the village in the back seat of the hired car, her eyes fill with tears. She orders the driver to turn around, and rushes back to the cottage where Graham meets her, red-eyed. “Why would I ever leave before New Year’s Eve?” she asks. “That makes no sense at all!” “ I have the girls New Year’s Eve,” he tells her. “Sounds perfect” Amanda responds.

They all gather for a New Year’s Eve party at Graham’s house with Iris, Miles, Graham, Amanda and the little girls, Phoebe and Olivia.

Will Amanda exchange the verdant abundance of her LA lifestyle to stay in England with Graham? Will Miles decide to experience London and Europe a while longer? Will Iris go back to LA with Miles? Or will their holiday become just another holiday, another blip in their “normal” lives?

I don’t know the answer, but I’m pretty sure that Iris will move forward with self confidence and gumption, and Amanda will have a more open heart as a result of their willingness to try on each other’s lives for a brief time.

At its most basic, Across the Universe (2007) is a coming-of-age love story. Young man from Liverpool, England, takes a job on a trans-Atlantic ship, then disappears into the US on arrival. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, find obstacles in their path, are temporarily separated and ultimately reunited. All set to music of the Beatles.

I have to admit up-front that I am an avid Beatles fan. I was in the 6th grade when the Fab Four made their first American tour, so I spent some of my most formative years listening to them, and I am firmly attached to the original versions of all their music. I resisted watching this movie for a long time because I did not think I would like hearing the Beatles’ music performed by the actors. That was a mistake, and if Across the Universe were to return to the theaters, I would go see it on the big screen in a heartbeat.

Across the Universe is anything but a simple movie. The essential story is layered and inter-woven with the social and cultural upheaval of the Sixties, the Vietnam War, protests, demonstrations, race riots, hippies, the psychedelic movement, and those who clung to their icons of success from the 50’s. And, running like a string of precious pearls throughout the film, are songs of the Beatles and Beatles-related references and jokes.

We first meet Jude as he is preparing to join the crew of a ship bound for the US. He leaves his Liverpool shipyard job, his girlfriend, and his Mum. We next see him on the campus of Princeton University looking for Wesley Hubert. Jude meets him and reveals that he is Wes’ son. Wes was stationed in England during the war, and didn’t know the girl he left behind was pregnant at the time. He makes it very clear that he doesn’t want Jude disrupting his current life with his wife and children in Princeton, but offers him a place on campus to bed down for a couple of nights.

While hanging out on campus, Jude meets Max (Maxwell to his uptight family), who brings Jude home with him for Thanksgiving. Jude meets the family, including Max’s sister Lucy. The family Thanksgiving dinner provides a perfect vignette of the social dissonance of the time.

Max announces he is dropping out of college. His father demands to know what he will do with his life, and Max responds, with some disgust,

“Do, do, do. Why isn’t the issue here who I am?”
Uncle Teddy: “Because, Maxwell, what you do defines who you are.”
Max: “No, Uncle Teddy, who you are defines what you do.”
Jude: “Surely it’s not what you do but the way that you do it.”

Max heads to New York City with Jude, and they rent rooms in an apartment from Sadie, a nightclub singer. They take in Prudence, who climbed in through the bathroom window while escaping from an abusive boyfriend. JoJo, a guitarist who left Detroit after his younger brother was killed during the race riots there, hooks up with Sadie.

Max takes a job driving a taxi and Jude, who is in the country illegally, freelances as an artist. Jude states, “Without a visa, I don’t really exist. It’s exhilarating in a way. It’s like a weird kind of freedom.”

Then Lucy’s boyfriend, Daniel, is killed in Viet Nam. Lucy decides to spend the summer in New York with Max instead of going to Europe with her parents. She brings some mail for Max from home, and gives it to him very reluctantly. It’s his draft notice – he shouldn’t have dropped out of school, one friend reminds him.

Max reports to the induction center, and a sergeant asks him, “Is there any reason you shouldn’t be in this man’s army?” Max responds, “I’m a cross-dressing homosexual pacifist with a spot on my lung.” “As long as you don’t have flat feet,” answers the sergeant, and Max is stamped “1A” and processed.

JoJo, the guitarist, comments that “Music’s the only thing that makes sense any more. You play it loud enough it keeps the demons at bay.”

Lucy becomes an anti-war activist with SDS and she and Jude argue about it. She tells him she would lie down in front of a tank if it would bring her brother home unhurt, and he responds, “it wouldn’t.” Lucy tells him, “We’re in the middle of a revolution, Jude. And what are you doing, doodles and cartoons?” Jude doesn’t trust the activist Lucy is working with, and she leaves him after he makes a scene at the SDS headquarters.

Jude frantically looks for Lucy at a big demonstration and sees her being hauled away by police, who also arrest him as he fights his way toward her. All the other demonstrators are released, but Jude is still in jail when his father shows up. Wes tells Jude that he has been able to arrange for charges to be dropped, but Jude will be deported.

Max is wounded in Viet Nam, and sent home to recover. The activist Jude hadn’t trusted begins making bombs, and gets blown up when one of them accidentially goes off. Jude takes a job back in the Liverpool shipyard. His former girlfriend is now married, and extremely pregnant. Jude spends a lot of time on the beach staring across the water toward the US.

With Max’s help, Jude returns to New York – with a proper passport and visa this time. To the stirring strains of “All You Need is Love,” Jude and Lucy are reunited, and presumably they live happily ever after.

Jude starts his journey as an adventurer – almost an accidental – expat, but after his deportation his return is very deliberate. He wants a life very different from the one he grew up with, and he finds it in New York with Lucy, Max and their other friends. In Liverpool, he’s a shipyard welder. In New York, he’s an artist. Liverpool – at least the part of the city shown to us in the film – is dark and solid. Life happens behind the brick walls of identical houses built in straight lines. New York is bright, colorful, and filled with life in the streets. Liverpool is predictable, New York is anything but. Although Jude doesn’t get involved in the American turmoil the way Lucy does, he thrives within it.

Notable cameos in the film from Joe Cocker, Eddie Izzard, Bono and Selma Hayak add to its sparkle. I highly recommend Across the Universe.

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Chocolat

Chocolat, 2000, starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp, is a heartwarming movie dealing with expat issues on several levels.

Vianne Rocher is the daughter of a French pharmacist and a South American woman whose people are missionaries. Not religious missionaries, but, following the north wind, Chitza and her people spread the good news about chocolate and bring cacao-based remedies to people in need. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Vianne becomes a missionary expat who uses chocolate to help people solve their problems.

One cold winter day in 1960, Vianne and her daughter Anouk arrive in a small French village and take over the lease of the local patisserie (bakery).

“Once upon a time, there was a quiet little village in the French countryside, whose people believed in Tranquilité – Tranquility. If you lived in this village, you understood what was expected of you. You knew your place in the scheme of things. And if you happened to forget, someone would help remind you.”

However, Vianne antagonizes the village mayor, the Comte de Reynaud, when she turns down his invitation to worship with the rest of the village in the Catholic Church, and then opens a Chocolaterie just before the start of Lent.

Vianne befriends and helps several of the villagers. One of Vianne’s new friends is Josephine, married to an abusive husband, Serge. Josephine leaves Serge and moves in with Vianne and Anouk, and helps Vianne in the store.

Early in the spring, another band of expats sails into the life of the village, arriving in their houseboats on the river. Reynaud the mayor tries to drive them away as well.

Vianne and Roux, the leader of the boat gypsies, become friends. (Roux is obviously an adventurer expat!) Separately and together they upset the “tranquilité” of the quiet little village.

Serge sets fire to the houseboats, effectively driving the gypsies away, but the Chocolaterie remains. In a fit of rage, frustration, and Lent-induced food deprivation, the mayor breaks into the Chocolaterie the night before Easter and destroys Vianne’s window display.

Her kindness to him when he is discovered, wins him over completely. Vianne and Anouk stay in the village, having finally found a home after a lifetime of wandering from place to place. Then Roux returns early one morning, and the movie ends with Vianne, Roux and Anouk drinking hot chocolate together.

Chocolat features three generations of expat women in one family. Although Vianne’s mother Chitza had died some years before the movie starts, she plays a central role. Chitza had chosen to move from place to place, having left her husband when Vianne was little. However, Vianne has been less willing to move and has been doing so only in obedience to her (dead!) mother. In truth, Vianne has been looking for someplace to call home. And Anouk hates moving and desperately wants to belong somewhere. Roux asks Vianne, “How does Anouk feel about it? . . . All the moving around.” Vianne answers, “Oh, she’s fine. She handles it beautifully, she makes friends easily, she’s such an unusual . . . She hates it. She hates it.”

Roux is another expat. His motivation is not as clear as Vianne’s. At one point he asks her, “Why do you give a damn about what these narrow-minded villagers think?” She doesn’t answer. After the boats are destroyed, Vianne tells Roux, “Your boat. . . you’ve lost your home.” He responds, “No, just a way to get from place to place, really.” In the end, it seems that Roux is willing to stop going from place to place as well.

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