Sundance 'Sugar' high

It was the third screening of "Sugar" -- the follow-up from "Half Nelson" filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden -- but the theater was still packed late Tuesday night with buyers and journalists eager to catch the moving immigrant drama, which introduces Dominican newcomer Algenis Perez Soto.

They elbowed their way into the 9:30 showing murmuring about Heath Ledger's death and their eagerness to get home. This year's frigid weather and abundant snowfall, coupled with the slow acquisitions, have dimmed some of the usual enthusiasm at the festival. Though it's tougher than ever to get into screenings -- even with tickets. Festival-goers are expected to arrive an hour early to catch most films. Droves of ticket holders were turned away this morning from a screening of the documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," even though it was the fifth public showing.

The "Sugar" audience applauded vigorously after the nearly two-hour, subtitled film, the story of Miguel "Sugar" Santos, a baseball player striving for the American dream.

Soto plays the title character, a 20-year-old athlete raised in relative poverty to be a pro ball player. His family's entire future rests on his success. He's recruited to play for a Kansas City farm team, but his overwhelming excitement is soon muted when he finds himself far from home in all-white Bridgetown, Iowa, with no English skills and a naivete about U.S. culture.

The film is performed mostly in Spanish, and its unknown cast of first-time actors lends it an almost documentary quality. Co-financed by HBO Films,  "Sugar" is a graceful portrait of the struggle of today's immigrants that avoids condescension and respects the complexities of the subject matter.

-- Gina Piccalo

(Photo: Algenis Perez Soto, left, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Courtesy of Frank Micelotta / Getty Images)