Review of Under the Same Moon (2007) by Carson T — 17 Oct 2015

Under the Same Moon walked a delicate line between creating a sense of deja vu by telling the same story we have seen a million times but also had to not far from the story to retain its meaning. Overall I would have to say this movie achieved this task pretty well.

This movie felt new and fresh most of the time, the only, the other parts are predictable but still have a breath of fresh air in them. One off the choices that really helped this movie was the choice to focus the movie on a child. Even though this is not necessarily a new concept it still felt like something we don't see everyday and it really felt unique.

And the child was not bad in this movie, most children in movies fill the movie with bad acting and create nothing more than a turn off for the audience but Adrian Alonso actually told quite the story with just his face and really added an it factor to this movie. Another aspect that helps the child based plot of this movie was the script. Adrian's lines showed maturity while still holding on to that sense of youth. He acts like a kid making adult choices which is a very risky move that can easily not work and can ruin the movie but they used it to perfection in this movie.

My one complaint in this movie was some of the story choices with this movie. There was so many situations that just unfolded perfectly and seemed extremely unbelievable. This doesn't hurt the movie too much but still does leave a nasty taste in the audiences mouth. Another issue I had with this movie was the pacing. It seemed like most scenes either went too long or needed to be flushed out more, such as when the coyote finds that Carlos is gone. The emotional scene only stays around for around 5 minutes and fails to create a drama filled scene that makes the audience think and feel emotion. While we instead got a 10 minute scene that provided nothing but comedy relief. It felt like the focus on the story and the drama involved with the story was drastically overlooked and instead was focused on creating a movie that would appeal to children.

While Under the Same Moon was a good movie it lacked the focus to be called a classic and ended up being to predictable in most scenes to create anything special. I wouldn't say to not watch this movie but it wouldn't be one that I can see myself watching again anytime soon.