Multicultural holiday soap about a Latino family that gets together for Christmas and to welcome home one of their number from Iraq. There is triumph and tragedy and everything you'd expect from a film like this including laughs, tears, and a warm fuzzy feeling.
Good solid family drama Shines thanks to a super cast (Alfred Molina, Elizabeth Pena, John Leguizamo, Luis Guzman, etc etc). What initially drew me to this film was the cast. How could anyone pass this up with a cast comprised of so many of the best character actors of the age in one place. Best of all they are all allowed to play roles that are not their typical roles. These are real people that you know. To be certain the story is a bit cliché, but the cast handles it with a great skill and they turn all of their characters into real people. Even Debra Messing as the one Caucasian in the bunch is fine, once she sheds the fish out of water shtick she's handed. It's so nice to see what real actors can do to turn a well worn tale of a holiday homecoming into something touching and affecting.
Trust me, you want to track this one down. It's a film that slipped through the cracks when it was ever so briefly released to theaters, and I think it's gotten lost now that it's out on DVD. Don't let the the few bad reviews keep you from seeing this. I almost listened to them, and I almost missed a super little film.
Worth a look and repeated revisits.
This is out on DVD and it's on cable.
Good solid family drama Shines thanks to a super cast (Alfred Molina, Elizabeth Pena, John Leguizamo, Luis Guzman, etc etc). What initially drew me to this film was the cast. How could anyone pass this up with a cast comprised of so many of the best character actors of the age in one place. Best of all they are all allowed to play roles that are not their typical roles. These are real people that you know. To be certain the story is a bit cliché, but the cast handles it with a great skill and they turn all of their characters into real people. Even Debra Messing as the one Caucasian in the bunch is fine, once she sheds the fish out of water shtick she's handed. It's so nice to see what real actors can do to turn a well worn tale of a holiday homecoming into something touching and affecting.
Trust me, you want to track this one down. It's a film that slipped through the cracks when it was ever so briefly released to theaters, and I think it's gotten lost now that it's out on DVD. Don't let the the few bad reviews keep you from seeing this. I almost listened to them, and I almost missed a super little film.
Worth a look and repeated revisits.
This is out on DVD and it's on cable.
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