Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I really enjoyed the first part of this movie which takes place in Glasgow Scotland following Robert Carlyle as a double deck bus driver who falls for a Nicaraguan woman after she gets caught not paying the fare. "George" takes Carla under his care, finds her a place to live and her story slowly comes out as they fall in love.Carla is emotionally tortured, as a Nicaraguan refugee she has witnessed much violence and devastation in her country's civil war. Eventually George buys them tickets back to Nicaragua so she can look for her family and a former lover, who was brutalized by the Contras during an ambush.I didn't like the second half of this as much, although the volatile environment of the country is well portrayed it just didn't hold my interest. The characters got vague as this become more of a political vehicle then the drama/romance we had with in the first part.In their search to find Carla's boyfriend they meet up with (Scott Glen), a bitter American aid worker who helps in the mystery of where her boyfriend is. As the war and violence takes over their lives, both of them have to make decisions. Ultimately I came away underwhelmed about the whole thing even though I think this movie was meant to move me on some level.I always enjoy Robert Carlyle, he does a great job here and was the main reason I watched this. 3/18/16

Without any money and financial support, how could it possible that Carla ran away from Nicaragua and across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in Glasgow, England? Where she got the money for her long journey? Who helped her to get through the British customs? Did she get any sponsor to help her making all this possible? By viewing this film, we could easily see that she was totally alone, a stranger in a strange land.By judging from the film's scenario background, we also easily understood that she was just an ordinary country girl in Nicaragua, so where she learned the English language and could achieve the level of even an interpreter to be so fluently to translate between two totally different languages orally? We didn't see any proof that she got a very good education background where she grew up, yet she could speak and understand English so well.Then, let's talk about this bus driver's character. By judging his job performance, he could barely stay with his job as a bus driver, suspended due to his so opinionated attitude to almost anything. He was just a poor sod with limited means for a normal living. Yet during this insecure period, he seemed to be not worry at all and still could afford drinking coffee or beer as other guys in Glasgow. He already got a girl friend who loved him very much, yet he changed his heart and fell for an illegal alien from Latin America. A guy who got limited means even for his own living, yet he still could afford buying two tickets for this Nicaraguan woman and accompanied her to go back to her country.Then another of the unavoidable logic problem comes up: He already knew she got a lover in her motherland. One of the main purposes why she wanted to go back was to look for her boyfriend Antonio, yet this Glasgow native who once was a bus driver, would have such a big heart and interested in helping her finding her old boyfriend? This guy is either a pea-brain moron or a complete idiot; there's nothing in between and, where's the logic? Now here comes my last logic101 question: Why Carla escaped from her war-torn country and migrated to England; what's the purpose of doing so? By finally made a friend with the bus driver, who later became her temporary lover, then with his support (for her air ticket fare and other general expenses) she would again return home with this white man. What made her consider running away from her Nicaraguan country in the first place would have become no big deal once she made acquaintance with the skinny and jobless white guy and then made her strong enough to go back to her country? Why she left and why she decided to go back? Why she simply stayed in her country and did the search by herself? Did she use the bus driver only for her financial support? By making a new boyfriend in England, then it would make her going back to where she came from? Why she chose England to escape to? This film in certain way is not a bad film, but so many nobody-questioned against the basic logic questions simply put me not to be so easily convinced of its believability besides its absurdity.

I am Nicaraguan by birth, but stayed away from politics while I lived in that country, although my family and myself experienced the anxiety, and sometimes the horror, of living under a totalitarian regime, even one supported by the US, such as the Somoza dynasty. Although I left for the USA three years before the final triumph of the Sandinista revolution, I visited the country many times during the Sandinistas' 10-year rule, and saw first-hand the good and bad sides of the revolution, as well as the economic hardships caused by President Reagan's (though Olly North and the CIA) support of the counter-revolutionary thugs called "contras", who decimated a whole generation of young people in that unfortunate country.I watched this movie last night and was impressed by how true to life Ken Loach managed to keep it. Although to some people it might appear as propaganda, my own experience tells me that everything that was depicted in the film (as far as the situation in Nicaragua in 1987 is concerned) was very realistic. The enthusiasm, especially among the poor and young for the revolution was true, I saw it with my own eyes. The fervor of the literacy campaign volunteers was admirable, even though some of them were targeted as "strategic" targets by the contra forces. Also targeted for destruction were health centers (which had never before existed in many remote villages), grain silos, tobacco sheds, etc., in the areas bordering Honduras, which is where Carla's family lives. The nighttime contra raid was very realistic, I must say, even though I myself never had to live through one. But I knew people who did. The cruelty of the contras depicted in the movie was well documented by American and other media at the time.Oyanka Cabezas' portrayal of the young woman is remarkable, and Robert Carlyle's young bus driver is spot-on. The role of Scott Glen as a reformed CIA agent, although good, is the only one I could find fault with for being a little political and perhaps preachy, but I think his comments were based on facts.In summary, I enjoyed the film very much. You don't have to be political to appreciate injustice, poverty, love and human decency. These human vices and virtues are all very well portrayed in this story. Kudos to all involved in its making.

A very beautiful and touching movie. Shows characters in a very sensitive way. A realistic film about people and the effect of terrible traumas (war) on them. It felt very sad. The movie really moved me what doesn't usually happen. Very recommended.