2DS Productions, Overture Films, State Street Pictures,
John Leguizamo, Alfred Molina, Freddy Rodriguez, Debra Messing, Elizabeth Peña, Luis Guzmán, Vanessa Ferlito, Melonie Diaz, Jay Hernandez
Alfred Molina is the patriarch of this Puerto Rican family from Chicago. For the first time in many years, the whole family is home for Christmas, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Everyone has their own drama, when Mama (Elizabeth Pena) announces she wants a divorce. On boy is home from Iraq where he witnessed the death of his close friend, another is in a crisis between having a career and family, and another is an actress who’s finding it a lot harder than anyone knows to survive in a cutthroat business like this. All in all, everyone has secrets and nobody wants to come clean.
This is a fairly interesting film for everyone, as most every family can relate to some of the crisis going on. But it’s rare to have a film with a Puerto Rican cast that deals directly with the holiday pressures facing this particular ethnic community. There are some great actors in this film, and it’s very well written. The only problem is there is so much drama and so many subplots going on, that all get wrapped up nicely in under 10 minutes. It’s like someone looked at the clock and said “Holy crap, we’re out of time, we gotta wrap this up!” THe pacing of the end was really rushed. But otherwise, it’s a charming Christmassy film that has been around for a number of years and is certainly very worth seeking. The tag line for this movie ought to be “Everybody’s human” as that is the real message of this film. We’re all flawed, and just trying to get by as best we can.
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