Under the same Moon (La Misma Luna)

I watched Under the same Moon (La Misma Luna), a Spanish language movie, a Cinema Europa at Vivocity on Thursday night. This overly-polished Mexican effort felt like a run-of-the-mill heart warming movie that studios like Disney used to churn out by the truckloads with a contrived, tearjerking end scene. The New York Times review described it most aptly:

'Like “Cinema Paradiso” and its tyke-centered ilk, “Under the Same Moon” places all its marketing eggs in the cute-kid basket, a container to which American art-house audiences seem particularly drawn. This time the bowling-ball eyes and scripted precociousness belong to the 9-year-old Carlitos (played by the 13-year-old Adrián Alonso), a Mexican moppet whose mother, Rosario (Kate del Castillo), works as an illegal domestic in Los Angeles. Every week Rosario calls her son from the same pay phone, while the movie milks sentiment from their separation and semaphores their reunion, an event as preordained as the end credits.'

The life of the illegal immigrant in the USA as protrayed was that of grimness and hopelessness which definitely will require brave political decisions to resolve though none seem forthcoming. Solutions? Social timebomb? Well? Mere legislation may not be enough.

This movie is competent, that is if you like heart-warming and artificially sentimental movies, this is just the movie for you. 5/10

Addendum

Make no mistake, I do enjoy art house films and foreign films. I have also watched 'Life is Beautiful' and 'Cinema Paradiso' though those moppet-centred movies were just unappealing, they felt contrived. I generally avoid movies like 'Children of Heaven' and their irk. No thanks.