By Ron Wilkinson Jun 9, 2008, 14:43 GMT
A moving story combined with first rate acting and a great screenplay by a new, but determined, writer/director make this an indie film not to be missed. Modern film noir from the streets of Mexico to the streets of America
New director Christopher Zalla pulls a rabbit out of his hat with this 2007 Sundance Film Festival prize winner about lost identity and finding a new life in America. A fresh screenplay (also by Zalla) and four outstanding performances keep this film moving from beginning to end. There is enough mystery and suspense to keep things moving and enough gritty realism to show audiences what it is like for mew Mexican immigrants in America.
Jesús Ochoa plays Diego, a dishwasher running away from his past in Mexico. Ochoa is the most accomplished of the four leads, winning the Silver Ariel for Best Supporting Actor in 1998 and 1996 for “Bajo California: El límite del tiempo” and “Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda.” He has over fifty films to his credit as well as several as director. If his other films show performances like this one, they are definitely must-sees.
Diego’s role is that of the troubled father who has either betrayed his wife, Pedro’s mother, or has been betrayed by her. The film shows him to be the reclusive butt of jokes at the restaurant where he toils silently over the dishwashing machine, occasionally lashing out when pushed too far. He lives a life of desperate solitude. His apartment and his very being show no attention to anything other than fighting off his demons.
The film starts with a great chase scene in close and teeming streets of an unnamed Mexican city. Juan (Armando Hernández) is in trouble and running for his life. As he runs we learn that he has done this before. We don’t learn it from dialog, there is none; we learn it from his style. He is cool and collected---running for his life is his job 7x24. This is the kind of terse brevity that Zalla uses to tell his story and probably one of the main reasons for the Ariel award. Less talk, more acting.
Armando Hernández is no newcomer to first rate cinema, with two nominations for the Silver Ariel for Best Actor (“Fuera del cielo” in 2006 and “Amar te duele” in 2002). At the age if 22 years he had nine feature films to his credit. His great performance is critical to the success of this film. As the villain, of sorts, he has to string Pedro along, telling the street wise and cynical older man that he is his son. He is the source of the stolen identity theme that drives the film.
Comically enough, Juan bursts into a warehouse where a corrupt border official is loading about two dozen Mexicans into the back of a van to be smuggled into the US. He realizes he will be beaten or killed if the tough smuggler throws him back out into the street, so he throws the money at the man as if he planned it all the time and is loaded on the van.
In the van he meets Pedro (breakthrough actor Jorge Adrián Espíndola) who tells him he is going to New York City to reunite with his father Pedro after some 15 years of separation. He is as naďve as Juan is savvy and the gears turn in Juan’s head as Pedro describes his father’s success as a restaurant owner. Neither boy, nor the audience, knows that Diego is really just a toiling dishwasher with no life at all.
Pedro wakes up in the van after everybody has left. Miraculously, the van is in New York City (one of the few times the audience is asked to suspend disbelief). His bag has been stolen and he is on his own to reunite with his father. Along with his bag went his father’s address and the letter Diego had written to Pedro’s father many years before.
Pedro unites with drug addict Magda (Paola Mendoza) and enlists her aid, against all odds, in finding his father in New York City with only a street number and address in a city with a dozen streets of the same number. Meanwhile Diego is being duped by Juan as all four characters head for a collision that will change their lives forever.
Excellent dark cinematography as Pedro forges ahead on faith alone, adrift in a city that has no place for him. A great film that sticks to business and combines the truth about being an illegal immigrant with the incredible pathos of a family torn apart. A triumphant statement about the importance of belonging to someone and the ultimate victory of loyalty over greed and avarice.
MPAA: Not RatedRuntime: 110 minutes Country: USALanguage: English/Spanish Color: Color
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