Under the Same Moon

59

Fox Searchlight Pictures, The Weinstein Company (109 minutes)
and Patricia Riggen
Kate Del Castillo , Adrian Alonso , Jesse Garcia , Kate del Castillo , Eugenio Derbez , Maya Zapata , and Carmen Salinas

Rating: PG-13 for some mature thematic elements

Summary: When the death of his grandmother leaves young Carlitos alone, he takes his fate into his own hands and heads north across the border to find his mother. As he journeys from his rural Mexican village to the L.A. barrio, Carlitos faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles with a steely determination and unfettered optimism that earn him the grudging respect and affection of a reluctant protector, a middle-aged migrant worker named Enrique. The unlikely pair finds their way from Tucson to East L.A., but the only clue Carlitos has to his mother's whereabouts is her description of the street corner from which she has called him each Sunday for the last four years. Unaware that Rosario is just hours away from returning to Mexico to be with her son, Carlitos and Enrique desperately comb the vast, unfamiliar city for a place he has seen only in his imagination. (Fox Searchlight)

Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly:
(91) The film says that the U.S. immigrant situation is untenable, but then it forces US to ask: What should be done?

Ken Fox
TV Guide:
(88) It's an unexpectedly powerful little film that manages to say a lot of what, despite all the talk on the subject, isn't being said in the national debate on immigration.

Ann Hornaday
Washington Post:
(80) Thanks to the uncommonly shrewd judgment of screenwriter Ligiah Villalobos and director Patricia Riggen, both newcomers, the film never feels like rank exploitation, even as it steadily aims for the emotional jugular.

Claudia Puig
USA Today:
(75) A powerful and evocative account of the efforts undertaken to forge a perilous mother-and-child reunion. Told in Spanish with English subtitles, it is a moving tale of yearning, as well as unflagging courage and determination.

Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle:
(75) Although based on a fictional story, it has the feel of truth and is a vivid reminder of the hell Mexicans put themselves through to live in the United States, even illegally.

Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald:
(75) Instead of delivering a pointed statement, this timely and energetic crowd-pleaser aims for -- and accomplishes -- something much more difficult: It makes you fall in love with its characters.

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