Movie- Mail Order Wife

Mail Order Wife (2005) is a strange little independent film. Filmed, as if it is a documentary, it has a film maker, taking on as his subject a man about to order a mail order bride. This man, Adrian, a Queens doorman (who describes himself in the mail order bride catalogue as in real estate and security) is pretty obnoxious and not very attractive, though he thinks he is a rare catch.

And he gets Lichi to come over from Burma and marry him. But he treats her like a servant, and the film maker, Andrew, starts having concerns about her well-being. When Adrian starts using Lichi in homemade porn movies, Andrew steps in, and offers her refuge in his house.

The faux documentary style works fabulous here. Even though we knew it was not a documentary, we had to double check a couple of times early on. The characters do not seem like actors reading lines at all. Later it becomes more evident that this is not a true story, but it has you guessing at times.

Andrew, for all his good will, has intentions for Lichi too. He ends up marrying her, and much to his chagrin, she turns out to be a terror--crazy wacko nut job, not the sweet little Burmese girl he had thought.

The film loses some of its innovation towards the end, and becomes too much farce. But even with that, this is an interesting little movie.