rosie perez be the lead in this very engaging affair and cast a mercedes and a young woman from brooklyn who have resolve to become a film actress although not favour by her circumstance and living in east los angeles and struggle with a series of fruitless audition for any sort of part at all . mercedes have hook up with a married and wash up actor and harry harrelson ( harvey keitel ) and who at one time have perform in a television western series during the 1970s and and seldom since and accept him a her lover and in part from loneliness and and as well from a hope that film part will be come her way because of his contact and but these latter be of small consequence a harry be simply self delusional in his attempt at recover what he perceive a past cinematic renown . in order to adequately support herself financially and mercedes toil a a taxi dancer in a downtown los angeles skid row dance hall or bar while she continue carry on her effort to succeed at the motion picture business and and it be while there at the dance palace that a young immigrant from mexico and ernesto ( michael delorenzo ) and fall in love with her and the large portion of the narrative depict his effort to please the object of his affection and even if they may mean lose her altogether . this essentially tradition root melodrama be give only a moderate budget and despite the presence of a goodly number of well know player and include steve buscemi and anthony quinn and and stanley tucci and and be keep in the can for about a year before it rather desultory distribution and leaden marketing effort on it behalf and more the pity a it solid production characteristic be firmly complement by alexandre rockwell admirably control direction and a consistent virtue of his work and and on display in this film from it very opening scene and frame that form a montage behind the credit and feature perez at skid row fifth and main street . rockwell have often demonstrate that he operate very closely indeed with his cast and and this hold true in this instance a he allow his actor to create their role while any ad libbing be neaten nicely via the edit process and result in an artistic success for the director and despite negative comment from some mainstream evaluator . the film scoring be aesthetically spot on with a good deal of it contribute by tito larriva and who also play a band bos for the taxi dancer . act honour here must go to the ever vital perez and although nary a sub par performance be turn in . a fair test for any film quality be give when a viewer will watch it twice within a brief period . sit through this undervalued work will be consider a keen pleasure for many .