Before watching the film, I considered myself to be sympathetic toward illegal aliens’ situations, but I actually became a little annoyed by the automatic sense of entitlement that most illegals are presented as having - especially when many of their real-life compatriots actually follow the rules and go through the process of becoming legal citizens. The film is of course entitled to its political views, but let’s not pretend they’re not there. At one point, a song comes on the soundtrack about how Superman should be forced to leave since he’s technically an illegal alien; at another point we hear two Mexican DJs riffing on the hypocrisy of Schwarzenegger’s anti-immigration policies. The expected scenes - the border patrol inspecting the car Carlitos is hiding in; police raiding a plantation to hunt for illegal immigrants - are filmed objectively, but there’s a heavy pro- immigrant influence to the whole project.
The producers and directors will tell you that this is not a political film but just a simple story about a mother and son, but that just a bunch of poppy cock. Most of the attention poured on the film will undoubtedly be its stance on immigration. But when the grandmother dies, Carlitos smuggles himself across the border in an attempt to find his mother in Southern California. working as a housekeeper, sending money back home to Mexico for Carlitos and his grandmother. For the past few years, she’s been living illegally in the U.S.
Mexican soap opera actress Kate del Castillo plays Rosario, mother of young Carlitos (Adrian Alonso from The Legend of Zorro). With a universal mother/son theme and extremely amiable actors, the praise is understandable - but not deserved. Under the same Moon received a standing ovation at Sundance, where it .
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