Once in a Sentimental Moon

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Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

Under the Same Moon, a new movie about immigration, has been called predictable by New York Times film critic Jeannette Catsoulis. Predictable, perhaps, because stories of families separated by harsh U.S. immigration policies are all too common. Through the use of standard sentimental plotlines, Under the Same Moon argues that immigration policy today is nothing short of a mess. The solution won’t be an easy one, but the film suggests that surely there is a better way than the current policy, which the film shows leads to heartbreaking separation of mother and son.

The movie, which showed at Sundance last year, is the story of nine-year-old Carlitos Reyes (Adrian Alonso) who lives in Mexico separated from his mother, Rosario (Kate del Castillo), who has been working in Los Angeles for four years. Carlitos lives with his grandmother, but when his abuelita passes away, Carlitos decides that he can no longer wait for his mother to return. What ensues is his week’s journey across the border to reunite with his mother. Meanwhile, Rosario faces crises of her own, wavering between returning to Mexico and marrying a legal Mexican immigrant in America. She too has decided that she cannot be away from her son any longer.

Before Rosario left for the United States, she told her son to always remember they will be looking at the same moon, even if they are separated by geography. Though the storyline is trite—albeit tear-provoking—the film itself somehow avoids falling into the sappy-movie trap. In her directing debut, Patricia Riggen presents an argument on behalf of illegal immigrants by appealing to both the audience’s emotions and intellect, weaving a sentimental tale that still manages to avoid feeling stale.

The movie’s underlying aim is to point out the tragedies of illegal immigration and undoubtedly advocate for a more liberal and humane immigration policy. Although exact numbers are unknown, the Department of Homeland Security estimated (PDF) that undocumented immigrants totaled 11.6 million in 2006. Of those, about 6.6 million are estimated to have come from Mexico.

Riggen uses relationships between the characters to illustrate the humanity that is often forgotten in today’s omnipresent immigration debate. The strength of this humanity is formed subtly in the details of the film, from Rosario’s hopes to be present when Carlitos grows a moustache to her promiscuous best friend who insists she should have fun while she is free from the responsibility of motherhood. Through all this, the movie could have easily become submerged in hackneyed themes, and I admit it is even hard to describe the impact of Carlitos’ and Rosario’s bond without sounding rather cliché. But Riggen ever so slightly does not to cross this line. The plot is realistic enough, and the good and bad balanced enough, that the film feels more like a documentary than it does a Hollywood film.

The film also avoids feeling too preachy because Riggen invokes pointed comedy at opportune moments to add levity to the heavy tone of the movie. For example, a song sung in Spanish questions why Superman is so highly praised when he is actually an illegal immigrant. This film may be about seeing the humanity in immigrants, but it also takes shots at the blatant hypocrisy in the American government. I found myself laughing just as much as I did crying.

Under the Same Moon also appeals to the intellectual arguments to liberalize immigration policies. The movie highlights just a few reasons why illegal immigrants are not always the criminals they are portrayed as. The Immigration and Naturalization Service isn’t exactly reflected in a positive light when its agents invade a farm and beat the workers in order to deport them. The INS agents emerge as the real criminals in the minds of the audience. Or when Rosario’s over demanding boss fires her, the audience cannot help but feel as though it’s the American boss who is the criminal, not Rosario.

Nevertheless, Under the Same Moon is still at its heart a story about the indestructible connections between human beings. It is about the strength of a mother and son’s love—no matter what their immigration status. There is little that can separate families—a point that extends beyond the film and into the issue of illegal immigration. The policy that separates families is a moral question, and not a technical or political one.

Brittany Schulman is an Editorial Intern at Campus Progress.