Celia (Milos) is described as the most married woman in the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. She is widowed, with a teenaged daughter (Rossum), and still very much in love with her fisherman husband who was lost at sea years ago. She lives next door to her mother-in-law (Lupe Ontiveras) who has been a surrogate mother to her. Celia works hard at a day job and sings fado, a beautiful Portugese song style, in a restauarant at night. Her life is very predicatable until she crosses paths with Charlie (Isaac), a gambler and card counter, who is broke and staying with acquaintences (Theresa Russell and Seymour Cassel) in the area. He is ejected, blacklisted from the casino in the area for cheating, but not before meeting Celia's daughter. She wants to learn to count cards and agrees to help him woo her mother in exchange for lessons. She gives him pointers that help him win Celia, but in doing so, he has not been completely honest -- not telling Celia the car he is driving and the home to which he takes her for dinner are his friends', not his. Of course, this is certain to imperil the relationship, especially with someone like Celia who has been so in love with her departed husband that she has not dared date much less open her heart to the possibility of loving another man.
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The review of this Movie prepared by ldpaulson
