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.