Heattland: Ludi

A concept with so much potential leaves the audience hanging with an M. Night Shamylan-esque twist that did little to satisfy.

Click here for Heartland Film Festival showtimes and tickets!

Disclaimer: I don’t know if I liked this movie less because I guessed there would be a twist, but since I did, my perspective on this movie is tarnished because of it.  There will be no spoiler contained herein. 

Haitian immigrant Ludi is working tirelessly as a CNA at a nursing home in Miami and sending money back to her family.  This is a common theme from immigrant families, as they still look to America as the land of opportunity and a place where “The American Dream” is still one worth pursuing.

Even though Ludi is living in a trailer park and picking up as many overtime shifts as she can, she is still struggling to make ends meet.  Further, her opportunities for growth are stifled since Ludi’s nursing home has forced her to sign a non-compete clause that doesn’t allow her to perform her CNA duties elsewhere (i.e. - no moonlighting or picking up extra shifts at another care facility).

Ludi, desperately trying to break out of this paycheck to paycheck cycle, agrees to some side-CNA work offered to her by her landlord (Madelin Marchant).  It’s at this private residence where she meets George (Alan Myles Heyman), an elderly dementia patient who is reluctant to accept her help.  George’s condition causes a minute to seem like an hour, because everything is an argument/debate.  Through this interaction, Ludi learns the real meaning of “The American Dream” and redefines it in a way that forever change her life.

Writer/director Edson Jean did an excellent job capturing Miami, Little Haiti, and picked appropriate music. With a running time of only 80-minutes, there probably wasn’t enough time for character development; some more character development could have filled some of the lulls in the movie (and at this length, there really shouldn’t be any lulls).