Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Love the Hard Way." Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna star in this drama about a thief who falls for a curious, beautiful young woman. As their intimacy grows, a slick cop (Pam Greer) is closing in.
At 17, Noel Rosa is a funny guy with a twisted chin who likes improvising sarcastic poems for his friends. He studies medicine and plays in a local band with other boys from his neighborhood. A middle-class white guy, he prefers the friendship of black guys from the other side of the tracks, factory girls and hookers. Between declarations of love and samba duels, the irreverent Samba Philosopher sidesteps his professors, family and even the police to live an intense life buoyed along by monumental quantities of cigarettes and alcohol. Until that is, an illness that is too powerful for the medicines of the era complicates his life.
