Under the Same Moon

‘Under Same Moon’ beautiful family story

Video Viper for Nov. 21, 2008

Fox Searchlight
Kate Del Castillo and Adrian Alonso in "Under the Same Moon.

“Under the Same Moon” is a beautiful story of a family torn apart because of the single mother’s desire to make a better home for her son.

Unfortunately, to do that, Rosario (Kate del Castillo) must leave her son Carlitos (Adrian Alonso) in Mexico and illegally cross the border into the United States.

There she does what so many others do, she works as a domestic for snotty, rich white people while others pick tomatoes.

Meanwhile, Carlitos holds a devotion for her mother, even though she left four years ago and he hasn’t seen her since. He is smart, living with his ailing grandmother. He is 9 years old.

Every Sunday morning at 10, he visits a telephone booth in his village to await a call from his mother, who is at another booth in East LA. Apparently, cell phones aren’t in their budgets.

Carlitos pleads for the chance to see his mother, but she is trying to save money to hire an attorney to plead her case for legal status. Meanwhile, she sends $300 monthly back to her mother and son.

During one such Sunday morning, we see a beautiful scene where Rosario describes where she is in the U.S., with a party store, a mural and a Domino’s Pizza shop within eyeshot. Carlito closes his eyes and imagines he is there with her

Carlitos’ fragile life takes a turn for the worse when he tries to awaken his grandmother one morning and discovers she has died.

He sets off to sneak into the U.S. and find his mother, taking the money she sent him.

He pays a young couple struggling with college bills to sneak him over the border. The girl is played by America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty” fame, her boyfriend by Jesse Garcia. When the hot van he is hiding in gets stopped at the border for unpaid parking tickets, Carlitos ends up in an impound lot, hidden under the seat. He escapes, dropping his money, and begins a fascinating journey, working odd jobs, asking for help when necessary, acting wise beyond his years.

He is begrudgingly befriended by another illegal alien, played by Eugenio Derbez, who helps guide him on his way.

Carlitos learns many lessons on his journey, more than a 9-year-old should learn. A substory is about his mother’s decision to marry a legal resident in order to stay in the U.S.

The film is sensitively directed by Patricia Riggen and young Adrian proves up to this monumental part.

This would be a fine film to watch with a child of say 11 or older. The film is pretty-much profanity free and there is little violence, although tension builds. The one thing to remember is the movie is in Spanish, so the child will have to be able to read subtitles, or understand Spanish.

I watched another film the evening I viewed this. It was “National Treasure 2 Book of Secrets.” I can’t remember much about it, but I remember everything about “Under the Same Moon.”

UNDER THE SAME MOON

(Misma luna, La)

• Directed by Patricia Riggen, directed by Ligiah Villabolos

• Rated PG-13 for mature themes

• Runtime: 106 minutes

• 3 1/2 stars out of 4

Lars and the Real Girl

‘Lars’ a story about a guy and his doll

A COUPLE (Paul Schneider, Emily Mortimer) hadn't guessed who is coming to dinner when Ryan Gosling brings home a a doll in "Lars and the Real Girl."

“Lars and the Real Girl” is a tale about a guy and his inflatable girlfriend he got off the Internet.

But if you are looking for a gross-out, adolescent-style sex comedy, this isn't it. In fact, the film is rated PG-13.

Ryan Gosling is the shy, baby brother. He is scared of women. He is scared of much interaction with anyone.

His parents are dead and his older brother and sister-in-law (Paul Schneider and Emily Mortime) occupy the old homestead. Gosling's character, Lars Lindstrom, lives in the converted garage.

The sister-in-law is the sensitive sort, maybe because she is pregnant. She wants Lars to meet a girl, begin a normal relationship. Heck, she even wants him to out of the garage and into the house. But she can't even get him to accept a dinner invitation, until…..

OK, let's digress. Lars works in an office. A fellow employee spends his time scanning the Internet for porn. He comes across a Web site that offers anatomically correct blowup dolls. You create the doll you want, with the look you desire.

Lars orders one who looks a bit like Angelina Jolie. But shy Lars isn't looking for the doll for a sexual relationship. He's actually looking for a more life-fulfilling relationship.

Thanks to family and friends. He gets it.

Lars actually accepts a dinner invitation from sis-in-law and asks to bring his new girlfriend. Sis-in-law Mortime is thrilled, until he meets her.

The look on Schneider and Mortime's faces is priceless when they discover the doll. The Mortime character tries to salvage the evening by going along with her demented brother-in-law. Her husband just thinks baby bro has fallen off the deep end.

Soon the townspeople, who all know each other, take the doll, named Bianca, under their wing, treating it like a human being.

Lars says she is a paraplegic who was a missionary in Brazil.

Bianca is soon getting a makeover. Joining the girls for events. There is actually a struggle. Lars wants her to stay home and play cards with him. Others want her to go out with them. For an inanimate, albeit anatomically correct thing, Bianca is quite the socialite. We even learn she was elected to the school board!

When Lars decides one morning Bianca can't be awoken, an ambulance is called. The doctors, the staff, all go along and treat Bianca like a real person. As Lars' therapist, Patricia Clarkson, says it is up to him to decide Bianca's fate.

The movie is rather sweet, filled with thoughtful, engaging people. But the joke about Bianca not being real does get old after awhile.

Parts of it might remind you of "Weekend at Bernie's," while others Jimmy Stewart's "Harvey." It has an old-fashion feel about.

And indeed Lars makes the final determination about his Bianca and you might get a lump in your throat watching.

Innocence

A NEW girl is introduced to the campus in "Innocence."

‘Innocence’ elusive, symbolic film

WEEKENDER for Nov. 7, 2008
If you are looking for “Innocence,” that is a movie by that title, you will discover a host of diverse films, dating from 1913.
This 2004 film by that name is part “The Prisoner” (the 60s British TV series), “Lord of the Flies” and “The Cider House Rules,” but then again, it is none of these.
This all takes place in a boarding school for young girls, located somewhere, in some time period.
If you like movies where all is explained to you, this probably isn’t for you.
Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, it stars Zoe Auclair and Laisson Lalieux in a tale of childhood on a school campus with high walls, days of swimming and playing and a concentration on following the rules.
We never see these girls in a classroom.
The film starts with what looks like a coffin. One girl walks into the room wearing a white dress and stands beside the coffin. Another girl, wearing the same type of dress, walks in and stands with her. Then another and another and another.
When they open the coffin, there is a young girl (Auclair), maybe 6, lying there. She opens her eyes and climbs out. While she asks where her younger brother is, she is told she will never see him again. It appears the life process has reversed. The girls are born into the school via a coffin and come alive.
As you can imagine, there is a great deal of symbolism in the film. Water is a big part. It brings life and it takes it away and helps with the girls’ transformations.
The girls all wear ribbons in their hair, the color dictated by their ages. The youngest wear red ribbons, the next group blue and the oldest, around 12, wear purple ones. They live in five big houses.
There are few adults around. Almost like “Peanuts,” it is the children who are the main focus.
One of the adults is Edith, played by Helene de Fougerolles. The school is surrounded by a high wall and Edith is crippled, making you think maybe she was a child there once who tried to escape.
Each year, a chosen older girl walks the long, forested but well light-path to another site each evening and returns home in the morning. When she leaves the school, another girl becomes the chosen one.
Meanwhile, the girls spend a lot of time learning dance routines, which they perform for money in their auditorium to a bunch of unseen men. This, we are told, is how the school is supported.
The film is ominous, sometimes a bit frightening and certainly unsettling, with its hinting of eroticism as the girls grow older. It is said to be based on an 1888 short story.
In some ways, it might be a microcosm of Victorian life. A girl is born, goes through changes as she grows, learns how to be female and is then paraded in front of men until she finds a partner.
See the film and discover your own take on the elusive picture.
Read past Viper columns at videoviper.blogspot.com

INNOCENCE
• Written by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Frank Wedekind (novella)
• Directed by Hadzihalilovic
• Rated R for some sexual content and brief nudity involving a minor.
• Runtime: 122 minutes
• In French with English subtitles as an option
• 2 ½ stars out of 4

Witness for the Prosecution

CHARLES LAUGHTON and Marlene Dietrich in “Witness for the Prosecution

Witness many twists in ‘Prosecution’

From Oct. 31, 2008 WEEKENDER

Noticing “Witness for the Prosecution” was being replayed on Turner Classic Movies recently, I decided after several years to give this 1957 Billy Wilder courtroom drama another look.

First, it boasts great star power. You have Tyrone Power in a different kind of role for him, Marlene Dietrich at her finest, Charles Laughton, just superb as the defense attorney, and a rather irritating Elsa Lanchester, the former “Bride of Frankenstein.”

The plot is simple. Power plays a man who drifts from job to job, although he certainly looks more sophisticated. He sees an older woman, (played by Norma Varden) undecided on whether to buy an elaborate hat.

He sticks his head in the store doorway and suggests it looks wonderful on her. He sees her later at the movies, they strike up a friendship and he visits her on occasion. After one such visit, she is found brutally murdered. He swears he is innocent, got home before the deed took place and his wife, played by Dietrich in classic form, will back him up.

Laughton is made for the part of the venerable defense attorney, just out of the hospital after a heart attack, but longing to enjoy a cigar. But yapping at his heals is Lanchester, playing his nurse, demanding he take it easy, use a chair lift and above all, smokes NO CIGARS.

The Laughton character is intrigued by the whole case, especially after he performs the monocle test on Powers. While questioning the Powers character, Laughton directs his monocle to shine in Powers’ eyes. By his responses, Laughton can determine whether his client is being truthful.

But nothing about this film can be taken as gospel. Is Powers’ character innocent or is he a master of deceit? Dietrich plays the wife who met her husband after the war in Germany. He marries her so she can leave that country. But is she really looking out for her husband? Does she believe him innocent? Heck, are the two even legally married?

The film was based on a stage play written by famous British mystery writer Agatha Christie. It was first made into a movie for British television in 1949, then American TV in 1982.

Laughton and Lanchester were married in real life. Powers, while still youthful looking, would die the next year.

I won’t go further into the plot, so as not to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. An announcer during closing credits asks you not to reveal the ending to those who haven’t yet visited the theater to see the film.

Even the cast was kept in the dark on how it would end!

But the cast and story are first rate, brought to you by Wilder, who also gave you such other pioneering films as “Sunset Boulevard,” “Some Like it Hot” and “The Apartment.”

If you’ve seen the film, see it again, this time more for the acting than the story line. It works on many levels.

Read more Viper reviews at videoviper.blogspot.com. E-mail Lebzelter at bobleb@starbeacon.com.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

Directed by Billy Wilder

Written by Agatha Christie and Larry Marcus

Runtime: 116 minutes

Not rated but suitable for most of the family

3 ½ stars out of 4