“Mail Order Wife” Directed by Huck Botko and
Andrew Gurland First Independent Pictures
“Mail Order Wife” starts off as any other
inconspicuous documentary. Adrian, a doorman from Queens, gives his
testimonial to the camera about receiving his new wife from China.
But chaos ensues once the cameras turn on the filmmaker and his
blossoming romance with Lichi. This outrageous turn of events can
be explained by the fact that this film is no documentary, but
rather a “mockumentary.” While the most popular
mockumentaries, such as Christopher Guest’s “Best in
Show” and “A Mighty Wind,” use parody in a very
lighthearted way, “Mail Order Wife” assumes a darker
tone, while retaining the zany, off-beat eccentricities of the
genre. Rather than focus on specific kinds of people, such as dog
show groupies and folk singers, this film brilliantly satirizes
sexual politics, the revenge of the jilted lover and the extreme
measures that people will take to avoid being alone. A great deal
of the humor lies in the desperation of the characters. Adrian
Martinez, who portrays the husband by the same name, comically
mixes the desire for companionship with the grotesque desires for
some kind of domestic slave. Eugenia Yuan (who will also star in
the upcoming “Memoirs of a Geisha”) infuses the
character of Lichi with a strong willed, manipulative interior
masked by an exterior sense of passivity. Finally, director Andrew
Gurland plays himself: a documentary filmmaker who becomes
increasingly intertwined in the lives of his subjects. Although
there are moments that are emotionally raw and powerful, the
strengths of the film lie in its absurdity. Because of the utter
desperation of the men, it very well could be re-titled as
“There’s Something About Lichi.” But while
it’s as zany as a Farrelly brothers film, “Mail Order
Wife” takes a much darker and more twisted approach in
showcasing relationships between men and women. -Emily
Camastra