The debut feature from director Patricia Riggen, this drama centers on a young boy's journey across the U.S./Mexico border to be reunited with his mother. Adrian Alonso stars as Carlitos, a Mexican adolescent living with his grandmother while his mother works as a maid in the U.S., hoping someday to send for her child. But when the grandmother dies unexpectedly, Carlitos must sneak across the border and seek out his mother. Featuring a supporting performance by America Ferrera of ABC's Ugly
Betty, Under the Same Moon premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
The performances -- and the movie's sideways glance at the culture of illegal immigrants, including a funny song about Superman ('He has no social security and no green card') -- give the movie its nicely controlled vitality.
Story of seperated mother and child doesn't carry much emotional impact. Makes you wonder how much mi madre really cares. Turns into a road drama with the kid headed to Los Angeles. Just couldn't care for the characters. Paul Chambers, CNN.
Some plot twists and encounters go beyond broad brushstrokes for complex characterizations to make corny seem meaningful. Cast and music add richness beyond the predictable.
Its parallel stories of two lost souls seeking each other across geographical divides is never more than one small step away from mawkishness and cliché, and oftentimes less. But as a sociological study, it's fascinating.
I could pick apart the simplicities and unlikelinesses and inconsistencies of the overall tale, but that will never trump the enormous lump in my throat I was left with by the film's end.
There are only three types of [legal] U.S. citizens in the film: cartoonish rich elitists, drug addicts, and whiny young Chicanos who've shunned their Mexican heritage.
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