A shameless tearjerker, Mexican style
Rating: 
Under the Same Moon, Patricia Riggen's film about an illegal immigrant in L.A. separated from her 9-year-old son, who's back in Mexico, is one of the biggest tearjerkers to come along in a while. With a sticky musical score that aims straight for the tear ducts, and a kid star, Adrian Alonso, whose pluck and precociousness are irresistible, this cross-border melodrama may move you to weep.
Or move you to actively resent the manipulations of a story that's too cute, too corny and too contrived.
Alonso plays Carlitos, a smart, industrious lad who lives with his frail grandma, and who speaks to his mother every Sunday when she calls from a pay phone near her apartment in a Los Angeles barrio. Rosario (Kate del Castillo) holds down two jobs as a maid, and sends most of the money home. It's been that way for four years, and the plan has always been to bring Carlitos north once she gains legal residency.
But then frail Grandma dies, and Carlitos decides it's time to reunite with his mother. And so an epic road trip ensues - with a frightening episode at a U.S. Customs stop, a frightening episode at a bus station with a sleazeball junkie, and a frightening episode as the INS swoops down on a band of fruit pickers.
Teaming up with a grumpy migrant worker (a great Eugenio Derbez), and hitting a new obstacle at every turn, Carlitos makes his way from Texas to L.A., and a final will-he-find-Madre moment that - even though you know the outcome - piles on the suspense. And piles on the sappiness, in mega-doses.
Under the Same Moon **1/2 (out of four stars)
Directed by Patricia Riggen. With Adrian Alonso, Kate del Castillo and Eugenio Derbez. Distributed by Fox Searchlight. In English, and in Spanish with subtitles.
Running time: 1 hour, 49 mins.
Parent's guide: PG-13 (child in jeopardy, adult themes)
Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, AMC Neshaminy, UA King of Prussia and AMC Loews Cherry Hill.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
