Director Chris Weitz presents a story of an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He works as a gardener in Los Angeles, trying to support his teenaged son. He takes a chance and buys his former boss’s truck, inheriting all the clients, and thus becomes his own boss. The American Dream! When the truck is stolen, his immigration status prevents him from going to the police, so he and his son play detective and try to track it down.
The biggest problem I have with the film is the overly-simplistic script. It feels like it’s written by some kid from Connecticut, who moved to Los Angeles and imagined what life might be for all the workers he sees hanging out in front of the U-Haul on Van Nuys. The adults work the gardens, eating tacos and talking of sending money home. The teens all speak gangster, smoke pot, and weigh the benefits of getting jumped into a the local gang whilst watching MTV’s Cribs. When the father and son get off a bus in South Central Los Angeles, every single person is a menacing-looking black man immediately suspicious of this 50-something man and his teen son. Much like I said about the one-dimensional characters in The Help, I’m sure there are people who are like this. But it so adheres to stereotype as to render these characters un-empathetic. They’re cutouts, playing their roles, not complex characters that you want to see in a film.
Additionally, these shallow characters are acting out a script too convenient to be believable. He gets the money to buy the truck at the last minute. His truck is stolen the very first morning he uses it, whilst literally enjoying the view for the first time in his life. A clue leads him to a place immediately opposite the rodeo he used to take his son to as a child; and wouldn’t you know it, they have time to kill and the rodeo’s open. The cops come into play at the exact moment everything seems to be going right. It’s all too deus ex machina for me to believe. And with the fact that the characters running this overly-simple maze are just too “type”, I’m left with a decently acted film that’s paper thin in too many places to be enjoyable.
