From the outset, I must say that I am a huge Aya Cash fan. That being said, Big Brother Volcano Is not a perfect film, Mrs. Cash's appearance in it notwithstanding. Alan and Mike are two brothers in law who take a trip to Nicaragua's Mercado Village resort to save Alan's (Brandon Scott) marriage to Mike's (George Basil) sister Megan and to become as Mike says.," ... real brothers on this trip." The two brothers-in-law soon meet up with Barbara (Aya Cash), an American expatriate who co-founded Mercado Village. Entanglements ensue as the relationships between Barbara, Alan and Mike become intertwined and by the film's end, Alan and Megan's relationship (Megan is relegated to being shown in flashbacks only) dissolves, Alan and Barbara's "romance" is fleeting (Barbara's spur-of-the-moment excursion to Spain ensures that), and Alan and Mike profess their newly found brotherly feelings in front of the eponymous volcano of the film's title.
As previously stated, this is not a perfect film: Alan does take a bit to get used to, Mike certainly has no interlocutor between brain and mouth (pardon the Sopranos reference) and Barbara is utterly condescending and impulsive at times. Additionally, the locals are treated as little more than props in the film, dutifully going about their daily routines (deaf optometrist, elderly dancers, construction workers toiling away) or being the recipients of the ire of Barbara (she clears some silverware in a manner that would make Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski proud) or Alan (who berates a local woman who is helping a sleep-walking Mike). Additionally, there is an undercurrent involving the mistreatment of other people of color in the film: an investment banker named Ruby (Anu Valia) is berated and later assaulted by Barbara: the assault occurs in the middle of sex toy inspired hi-jinks. Further, Mike slaps Alan, and in the years since Virgil Tibbs slapped Preston Endicott in In the Heat of the Night, any scene involving a white actor (Basil) slapping a black actor (Scott) is, putting it mildly, off-putting. Further still, Mike's behavior (he screams in his sleep twice in the film) is never fully explained, and Barbra's strategy with dealing with her parents' disapproval of her lifestyle is something that Alan near the film's end calls "irrational." Unexplained behavior as exhibited by Mike's trauma at the hands of his father ("The Big Guy") or Barbara's futile running away from her parents due to their disapproval is hardly amusing or satisfying.
Still, Big Brother Volcano, despite its flaws, does have gorgeous scenery, a wonderful soundtrack, and a good cast making the best of their characters' flaws. The scenes involving Cash and Scott's "romance" work very well, the put upon skipper of his own boat ("My boat, my rules!") is funny, and the tryst between Cash, Scott, and Basil is well choreographed, the humiliation of Scott's character Alan notwithstanding. Ultimately, the characters of Big Brother Volcano find that the relationships that they prized were transitory: Alan accidentally learns that his marriage has disintegrated via email; the depth of Alan's involvement with Barbara is undermined by both Mike and a ne'er-do-well named Edgar; the relationship that Barbara has with Mercado becomes irreparable and leads her towards another diversion. Mike, it appears, is the only one who has his wish for a true relationship with his "little bro" come to fruition. Alan receives a reminder, ultimately, of what he gained while at Mercado, a picture sent to his cell phone that signified that he wasn't just a tourist: he was a somewhat reluctant adventurer on a rather bumpy ride. 7/10.
