Of course it's definitely true that illegal immigrants from Mexico don't have the best reputation in America, to say the very least. It's a big problem but of course there always is a very human side to their stories and not everything is always as black and white as some people would suggest. This movie gives illegal Mexican immigrants a human face, by telling a very human, subtle, little drama.
The movie had all of the ingredients in it to become a formulaic and predictable drama. It also didn't had a big budget behind it, or any big names involved, so this movie very easily could had become a very forgettable and unremarkable one. Yet the movie manages to become way more than that, by cleverly avoiding most of the clichés you would expect in a movie like this and by not going for any cheap sentiments.
The movie actually manages to surprise you by the direction it is taking at times. At certain moments it is suggesting to you it is going to head into a certain direction but then it's doing something totally different and unexpected. Plot lines are often being dropped for something totally new and different and in this case that is an approach that actually works out well for this movie and its overall realism and drama.
What I also really liked about the approach was that it was constantly following a father and his 14-year old son. And no matter how bad they seem to have it, they come across people who are off far worse than they are. It puts things totally in a different perspective and light at times, which works out originally for its story as well.
Yet I still don't rate this movie THAT highly and I also can't say this is an absolute must-see. It obviously is a very recommendable movie but still at the same time it also is being too little and simplistic with its resources to make a true lasting impression or a big impact. It's a movie that will stay on your mind for a while but not one you will still think about much or highly, a couple of months, or so, later. This is not really being any criticism toward the movie itself though, since it does, what it does, oh so well.
So yes, it definitely is a movie worth checking out because of its subject and the way it's handling it.
7/10
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