AFI Fest Highlights

Following are capsule reviews of today’s screenings in the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas: ‘The Ambassador From India’

Colombia, 1987, 85 minutes 9:15 p.m . Fitfully amusing comedy about a compulsive liar in Colombia who comes to be lionized by an entire town after affecting an accent and passing himself off as a visiting ambassador. Out of this escalating mistake, director Mario Ribero elicits gentle laughs throughout, yet any real satirical potential is dulled by a weak ending that lets its weak protagonist off the hook. “People see what they want to see,” is the maxim here, but the simplicity of the townspeople shouldn’t excuse the duplicity of the masquerading hero.