MANY FORKS IN THE ROAD FROM BURMA

By RUSSELL SCOTT SMITH

March 11, 2005 --
Rating:

MAIL ORDER WIFE

Running time: 92 minutes. Not rated (profanity, sexual situations). At Angelika Film Center, Houston and Mercer streets.

IT takes guts to make yourself look as ugly as Andrew Gurland does in the totally original but rather nasty mockumentary "Mail Order Wife."

At first, this black-as-tar comedy looks like a traditional (though disturbing) documentary that Gurland is making about Adrian (Adrian Martinez), a schlub from Queens who gets a Burmese mail-order bride. But the story veers off in unexpected directions.

Adrian turns out to be a depressingly unpleasant person, and after he ties up his bride, Lichi (Eugenia Yuan), to make a porno video, she runs away to the only other American she knows — Andrew Gurland himself.

Then things get really crazy.

The fictional Andrew lets Lichi sleep on his couch, and then in his bed. His girlfriend leaves him. For a moment, it looks as though he and Lichi might fall in love.

But that would be way too sincere for this movie, and it turns out that Lichi isn't as naive as she seems.

The film twists and turns from there, each new development more surreal than the last, to a bizarre moment near the end when steroids-whistleblower Jose Canseco shows up to lend Andrew his yacht.

"Mail Order Wife" is a remarkably smart and weird film, even if it's sad and sometimes difficult to watch, with jokes designed to make you cringe.