Take away the illegal message and you really have no movie to work with.

Contrary to the opinions expressed by the prior two posters, this is an excellent film. Not trite at all, but heartfelt, sincere, and not overlywrought, it's a terrific film. Seriously, this will not only get a huge nod with a nomination and likely win in the Independent Spirit Awards, but it's not too much of a stretch to see the Academy giving it serious consideration. The cast is excellent, the writing is real, the dialogue is natural, nothing false or contrived about it. The line which is ridiculed in the post above is spoken by a 9-year old in the film. He's not quoting "The Nation" or "The Wall Street Journal." It's dialogue which one would easily believe would come from a child.

Lfweigel88 (and everyone else) should see this film. It's not a movie intended to change your mind about anything (including immigration, at least not as a polemic). Rather, it's a movie about people, relationships, danger and distance. According to the writer and director (both of whom spoke at the event where I saw the film tonight), the film is designed to tell the story of separation and the strain on family which results from a decision to emigrate (whether illegally or otherwise) from the point of view of the child; it tells of the impact on the child of his mother's (and his father's) absence has on his life, and his struggle to reunite with his mother. But, I suppose if you didn't like In the Valley of Elah, you might not like this one either.

Don't miss this one.

Uhm... lfweigel88 films and literature do change legislation and the way we veiw the world... for example take a look at the impact of Upton Sinclare's novel the Jungle. Because of that novel alone the entire meat packageing industry got a change of standards and the FDA was founded.

Doubt it can happen with a film? Take a look at Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" While it hasn't change much as far as legislationin the uited states it has had a global impact on policy makers:

In September 2006, Gore traveled to Sydney, Australia to promote the film. Then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard said he would not meet with Gore or agree to Kyoto because of the movie: "I don't take policy advice from films." Former Opposition Leader Kim Beazley joined Gore for a viewing and other MPs attended a special screening at Parliament House earlier in the week. [52]

After winning the general election a year later, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratified Kyoto in his first week of office making the United States the only industrialized nation in the world to not have signed the treaty. [53]

In the United Kingdom, Conservative Leader of the Opposition David Cameron urged people to see the film in order to understand climate change.[54]

In Belgium, Margaretha Guidone persuaded the entire Belgian government to see the film.[55]

In Costa Rica, Al Gore met with president Oscar Arias, and was well received by other politicians and the local media.[citation needed]

In Germany, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel bought 6000 DVDs of An Inconvenient Truth to make it available to German schools.[citation needed]

In Spain, after a meeting with Gore, prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said the government will make An Inconvenient Truth available to schools. Gore has received this year's Prince of Asturias Prize for international cooperation [56][57].

Entertainment can change the world, and I think we would have seen some policy change in the US if our president at the time hadn't received over 400 Million dollars in capaign contributions from Oil companies to run for office.

"You shady mother *beep*
-"Dirty Money in the Midwest" by Me

I don't think they were trying to change people's opinions. I DO think they were trying to tell a story.... that's what films do right ;)

I'd have to agree with Cent ffxi. Alot is lost when translating from one language to another. The dialogue in this movie is natural and makes the storyline so much better.

I understand that everyone has their opinion, and that not everyone enjoyed the film. But I don't understand why people have to bash it in such a way. If you didn't enjoy it then go see movies such as Transformers, the Matrix and even Titanic, that having no importance or meaning make millions of dollars because that is all people enjoy.
But once a movie that has revelance to what is happening to millions of people today and is critical of the United States, people right away have to put up this defense mechanism, just because maybe you yourself have never experience anything that can impact your life, but this movie includes an important message.
and instead of saying that this is just a cliche, take a look at the news, a newspaper perhaps and see what is happening around the world. How people from a Haiti have to migrate to yet another poor country such as the Dominican Republic, to find jobs and food. Or maybe how an African couple immigrated to Ireland, had a son there and now they are being deported. This is not just happening in the United States - Mexico border but around the world. Maybe we should start seeing eachother has friends and less like enemies, we all have the same goal in life and that is to succeed and have a better life not only for ourselves but for our families.




Live simply so others may simple live.

What a stupid topic! you can tell that the OP has an issue with immigration. How about we take away drugs from the movie traffic, we probably wont have a movie, or take away the heist from ocean's 11, or maybe take away a little alien from E.T. or whatever. Get a life and quit bitching about immigration here.

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This was pretty good film, maybe not the best, but it was great, it wasn't like all those mexican movies with all the bad things from Mexico, this was more about people, about people that feel.


Maybe I liked it because I am mexican, but I really think that it was a good movie, my younger sister liked it, and my mom did it too.

Don't think about the story, think about how the movie look a like, it was pretty cool.

Well, that's what I think?