A Better Life

For what is basically an immigrant drama, I didn't have high hopes for A BETTER LIFE. Directed by Chris Weitz, who has made a stream of films that are either schlocky are pretty darn good, the film follows Carlos (Demían Bichir) as he evades danger as a Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles. Carlos is a single father, and he's not at home much, merely lending out some demands in Spanish to his son. Well-intentioned, Carlos is simply unable to raise his son, Luis, who has been descending into the world of gangs. Luis is pretty unlikable, especially when contrasted against his father, who Bichir plays with nobility and a face that falls into empathetic looks of melancholy or hope by scrunching his eyes under a vast forehead. Carlos' gardening partner is moving back to Mexico, and plans to sell his truck. Carlos borrows some money from his sister to get the truck, which he could use in order to sustain his gardening for rich L.A. whites. But Carlos' kindness is taken advantage of, and his truck is stolen. Distraught, he inducts his son in his search for the truck, which results in a colorful and entertaining mystery-plot as the two trek the streets of L.A. looking for just one truck, and with the memory of a generic-looking Mexican named Santiago to assist them. But A BETTER LIFE poignantly displays Carlos as a respectable man who just wants a better life for his son. Any questions that I came up with the challenge the film were answered a minute after I'd thought of them, even having Luis come up with a few queries for his father like "why would you have me?" But what Carlos conveys is a hope and yearning that is still planted in the American dream, false as it is. And the only thing he has to cling to is the though that he might make life better for someone else, and that he'd enjoy that process.

★★★★ out of Five