Twentieth Century FoxReview in a Hurry: The immigration debate is fierce, feisty and emotional—everything this completely paint-by-numbers drama is not. Under the Same Moon is a heartfelt attempt to personalize the issue, but falls flat under the weight of its own heavy hand.
The Bigger Picture: Carlitos (Adrian Alonso) is a 9-year-old boy who hasn't seen his mom, Rosario (Kate del Castillo), in four years, when she immigrated illegally to the U.S. to support her son and his sickly grandmother. When grams dies, Carlitos heads to the border (with the help of Ugly Betty herself, America Ferrera), magically slipping through various traps like a Hispanic Harry Potter.
He eventually meets up with a migrant worker, a lone-wolf sort named Enrique (Eugenio Derbez) who of course is won over by Carlitos' moxie and big, bright, puppy-dog eyes. The fellas search for an intersection Rosario has described to Carlitos in weekly phone calls, somewhere in east L.A.—their only clue in locating mom.
The rest is tear-jerking filler with the subtlety of a knock-knock joke. Rosario and a friend, shivering at a bus stop at 6 a.m., wonder if they shouldn't just marry a couple of gringos for citizenship. On cue, two bikers on their hogs drive by and hoot at the girls. Never mind it's a completely ludicrous concept that bikers would be laughing it up at the butt-crack of dawn. Talk about literal translation—at the cost of ever-important realism.
Whatever you feel about illegal immigration, those affected certainly deserve to have their stories heard, and they definitely deserve less mawkish and by-the-book stories than this.
The 180—a Second Opinion: Authenticity abounds in Moon, from the on-location settings (both Mexico and L.A.), to the deeply felt performances. Adrian Alonso gets major props, and particularly shining bright is Kate del Castillo. Her beauty and radiance fuels the movie with an emotional gasoline that's sorely missing everywhere else.