|
Plot: A very religious, troubled, widower father with problems and shortcomings of his own discovers through a set of lude photographs that his son is homosexual. This film shows the overwhelming friction between his immense love for his only son and his intolerance for gays. Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Erika Alexander, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Jesse Borrego, Talisa Soto Directed by: Peter Bratt |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Comedy |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dan |
Terri |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
With my perfect score for this movie, you might expect it to show up high on my list of best movies of all time. It probably won't, mostly because it was more of a fictionalized documentary than a suspenseful or cleverly dramatized plot. It's more of an everyday story, brilliantly told. With the exception of Jeremy Ray Valdez, who turns in a mediocre performance as the homosexual son, the film was superbly acted. The culture of Latino life in the Mission District of San Francisco is captured with stunning accuracy. Its warmth, its underbelly, its fabric, its nuances, its challenges and its strengths are all brought to canvas and film in a vibrant and compelling manner. While the father's responses and additional societal issues that brought to the fore in this movie--and there are many--are portrayed in stereotypical ways, they are nonetheless accurate and convincing. (Benjamin Bratt does and extremely fine job of portraying the father.) The film is not deep with insights in that most of these common everyday problems are dealt with at a surface, not deeply psychological, level. >However, the excruciating pain, as well as the dier consequences of not "getting things right" and not being able to weigh life's priorities quickly and with compassoin are illustrated in a very poignant and effective way. So, this is a thumbs way up for me and an A+ in my grade book. Lest you expect too much from those designations, remember that I said that this film is nearly a fictionalized documentary. While documentaries have their place in the kingdom of great films, I'm not inclined to include them in my "best films of all times," list with equally high rank to their literary and commercial fiction counterparts.
|
Terri thought this movie was sad, sadder and most sad. It's interesting that I did not get this vibe from the movie. I think that is because she was able to feel and internalize the pain the characters were experiencing and less caught up with "fixing things," which is the male perspective. She said that she would definitely give the film a thumbs up and that she enjoyed musing at some of the cultural aspects of the movie, such as low rider cars. But, as I asked her more questions about the plot, as illustrated by the father's development and adaptation over the course of the film, she kept coming back to her one word review, i.e. SAD!
Use this link to return to the Periodic Perspective Newsletter home page |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Movies | Books | Restaurants | Lodging | Equipment | Waterton Press | Forthcoming Events | News Flashes
Reviews |Investment Consulting | Law | Writing | Golf
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |