Bajo la Misma Luna: Touching, but not Heavenly

Under the same moon, from debut feature film director Patricia Riggen, depicts the pain and sacrifice endured by families split across the border separating Mexico and the United States. 

Unable to endure more time away from his mother, who is working to support him in East Los Angeles, 9-year-old Carlitos leaves Mexico to find her -- without an address or phone number.  His ensuing odyssey through immigrant communities in the American Southwest touches the heart, though the story is markedly unrealistic and ultimately leaves viewers no more informed about the real issues immigrants face.  Armed with uncanny strength and charisma, Carlitos makes the best of his impossible situation and inspires his much older fellow migrants.  In one scene, he literally reverses roles with his own father.   

American police, and actually nearly all gringos presented, are one dimensionally evil in the film.  America Ferrera, better known as TV’s Ugly Betty, cameos as a culturally ignorant chicana attempting to profit from the plight of Mexican workers -- one of the film’s more interesting characters. 

The title references a metaphor -- Carlito’s mother once comforted the boy with the thought that though they may be separated, they will always be under the same moon.  In the imaginative context, the 9-year-old’s journey could be considered a metaphor in itself.  But ultimately, the film leaves the viewer wishing the film had decided between portraying a realistic view of life straddling the border and an artsy, figurative analysis of the split family situation. 

Riggen may have some wrinkles to smooth out as a film director, but it is obvious that she has the art of manufacturing a telenovela-inspired plot down.  Those looking for a good, rather predictable tear jerker would enjoy this film.  Writing for the Christian Science Monitor, Peter Rainer had the right idea when he said his mind was less consumed with mother-son unification while watching the film than whether “Under the Same Moon” could make Lou Dobbs reach for a tissue. 

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