Review of A Better Life (2011) by Thomas W — 09 Mar 2012

A touching story about a father and son in East Los Angeles. The father is struggling to keep his son from drifting into a world of gangs and violence as he works around the clock as a gardener to provide A Better Life for his son.

The problem ... our father is an illegal immigant with no papers and so everything he does requires extra delicacy and caution. When the father gets his "big break" and purchases his own truck to begin his own gardening business .

.. things begin looking up, until tragedy strikes and his truck (his means of livelihood) is stolen. Without being able to go to the police as an everyday citizen could do ... the desperation father and son sink to reminded me of Vittorio di Sica's Bicycle Thieves.

Demian Bichir plays the father and he has some wonderful moments onscreen where his eyes tell us everything he is feeling. Director Chris Weitz (About a Boy, The Golden Compass) justaposes American everyday life into montages of this dreamy Better Life our characters pursue.

There is nothing flashy, apologetic or in-your-face here ... it is a subtle film of feeling. How one feels about immigration will affect one's opinion I am sure; but it should take one with a particular cold-heart NOT to be able to feel something for our troubled father.