Under the Same Moon
by Patricia Riggen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adrian Alonso, Carmen Salinas, Eugenio Derbez, Kate del Castillo, Maya ZapataDirector: Patricia Riggen
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Producer: Emilia Arau
Producer: Gerardo Barrera
Producer: Gina Amador
Producer: Ligiah Villalobos
Writer: Ligiah Villalobos
Producer: Lorenzo O'Brien
Producer: Norman Dreyfuss
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-06-17
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Under the Same Moon
Movie Review: 'The Straight Story,' Mexican-Style
Summary: 5 Stars
This certainly lived up to expectations of being "a nice movie," an involving story about a young Mexican boy who sneaks into the United States to try to find his mother in Los Angeles.
She had been in L.A. for four years and, frankly, I forget why. They don't dwell on that, but there must have been a good reason since she loves the kid and vice-versa. Each Sunday morning at 10, she calls him from the same spot. That's a key to the story.
When the woman's mother dies, "Carlito's" grandmother who had been looking after the young boy, the kid decides his options aren't good at that point and he needs to take a big chance to see if he can find his way to Los Angeles. Yes, you have to suspend your beliefs here a bit, as the odds on a kid actually being able to do that - all with no money! - are astronomical, but it's fun to watch him on his journey and how he makes do with what little he has. Some of the friendships he makes are truly touching and in a way, the best part of the film.
While writing this, it makes me flashback to the film "The Straight Story" when an old man on a tractor drives 300 miles across Iowa to see his long-lost brother. He is befriended by many people along the way, some who go to extraordinary lengths to help a stranger. That's the case here, too.
We also get a good profile of the mother, her best friend and a wonderful man she meets during this story, all of which takes place in one week. Each "chapter" of the film is broken down into days. Yes, the film is slightly preachy concerning immigration but the story is so good that one forgets about the political aspect, no matter what side one is on.
The last half hour will keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering exactly things how will turn out. That's good, because it means the movie is entertaining. Definitely recommended.
Summary of Under the Same Moon
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 06/17/2008 Rating: Pg13Under the Same Moon puts a human face--several very appealing faces--on the dilemma of Mexican "illegals" living and working clandestinely in the United States and the loved ones back home they're supporting. Rosario, a young single parent, left her village four years ago and jumped the border to find work in Los Angeles; ever since, she and son Carlitos, now nine, haven't seen each other, but she faithfully calls him from the same street-corner pay phone every Sunday morning. When Rosario's mother--the boy's guardian--dies in her sleep, Carlitos taps into an impressive reservoir of street smarts and contrives his own border crossing. The border is just the first of many obstacles to a mother-and-child reunion--not least the fact that the only address the boy has for Rosario is a mental image of the corner she always phones from.
It's easy to take cheap shots at Patricia Riggen's feature-directing debut for tugging at the heartstrings, and certainly Under the Same Moon aspires to nothing like the political and psychological complexity of The Visitor, another film involving illegal immigrants that was released around the same time. But that misses the point, the nature of the mission, and the effectiveness with which Riggen carries it out. Carlitos encounters an almost Dickensian gallery of rogues and menaces, but that's allegorically appropriate for a crossover film (pun unavoidable) aimed at the general U.S. market as well as the Latino circuit. Nor is the movie guilty (as some have charged) of flogging an Anglo-bad/Latino-good poetics; there's opportunism as well as love among Carlitos's neighbors back home, and although Rosario is exploited and cheated by one of the two L.A. households she serves as a maid, the other family appears fond, even solicitous of her.
Riggen's casting is on the money: Kate del Castillo makes a heartbreakingly lovely Rosario, and Adri?n Alonso, in addition to giving a gutsy performance as Carlitos, has a marvelous old-man's face the camera never tires of. Veteran actress Mar?a Rojo creates a shrewd portrait of a woman who arranges border crossings and observes her own brand of ethics while doing so, and Eugenio Derbez brings raffish charm to a crowd-pleasing role, a guest worker who, though himself two leaps ahead of "La Migra," becomes Carlitos's reluctant protector. America Ferrara (yes, "Ugly Betty") contributes an unflattering cameo as a U.S. college student of Hispanic descent who doesn't understand Spanish. --Richard T. Jameson
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