Carlos Galindo (Demián Bichir) has great expectations when entering America illegally and working as a gardener. He wants a better life for his wife and child. He works and never complains. Unfortunately, his wife objected to the simple life and chose to leave Carlos with their son, Luis Galindo (José Julián).
Hope for a better life came when Carlos was offered a Pickup Cars that he could wear to work on his own with unnecessary wages. With proper financial condition, Carlos borrowed money from his sister, Anita, determined to return it later. Naas, a few days later, when Carlos was at work, his car was stolen. The dream of a better life seemed to collapse in front of Carlos.
Character father and son who joined to find a car in this film became the foundation and the root of all the core story in this movie. The search of the stolen car is what cultivate this father and son relationship, as well as the unveiling of some little secret that during this time the father covered for the happiness of his son. But every life always has problems, for anyone. Carlos must be willing and patient when his movements are limited by the immigration, playing cat kucingan, be careful and hide his work so as not to be deported.
Chris Weitz conjures A Better Life into a simple drama story and a simple storyline, not even a big name in his cast, or a magnificent visual display that can amaze his audience, but succeeds in bringing the film into a quality drama movie as well as touching on the lives of illegal immigrants in the United States, presented Weitz in a simple and familiar formula and can make A Better Life so capable of appearing as a powerful drama.
If we watch this movie with great expectations of innovation in the story, clearly A Better life does not have this quality. We often watch the story of a dark immigrant who sneaks into America with poor and overlapping conditions, or the story of a father who struggles to work for the child. both of the above stories are very familiar and often found in various films. The story is standard and cliché indeed, but it turns out A Better Life with many positive sides, able to appear to touch and can take the hearts of the audience and away from the word failed for a drama (once again, though the story is very cliche).
Seeing the struggle of a father who is so willing to work hard, go early in the morning, work all day looking for money, go home immediately asleep, and tomorrow repeated the exact same routine, without even a second we see the father angry, sad or complain. Carlos's character is far from the ideal father's model, but we are invited to see how hard Carlos's struggle to survive in this country, working for a small wage, because he can not afford to find a more established job because of his illegal immigrant status. Living with his teenage son (Teen is difficult, we know it) and trying to keep his son away from the activities of the Latino gang and drug trafficking, Carlos's only one dream, a better life, being able to send his son to a better school and deliver his son became someone, that's the biggest target of his life.
Carlos always treats everyone, even those who harm him with the honor that he himself seldom gets.
Demian Bichir manages to bring Carlos very well without a lot of dramatic dialogue, just through the look on his face we can feel his weariness in life, the fear that shines from his eyes when he sees his car that is the door of hope for him, stolen, he runs after, could not bear it anymore and could only gaze sadly and afraid the car was taken from his hand. The part that time Carlos spoke really with his son, Luis, just before he was about to be deported was the climax of the dazzling acting Demian Bichir. Although he cried, the tears did not in any way reduce his value as a strong and tough father figure.
Demian Bichir is a black horse in the Oscars this year, many do not think that he and Carlos can bring this figure can beat other strong candidates such as Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar), Michael Fassbender (Shame) or Ryan Gosling (Ides of March, Drive). I can not say that the entry of Bichir and the exclusion of the names I mentioned above as a controversy. All of them including Bichir deserve a nomination. The thing that proves, Best Actor competition at the Oscar ago was tight.
A Better Life ..
like what? every time we always try to get a better life, but is it true that the life we are pursuing is better? sometimes it is confusing whether our life is better or there is another life that can be better if we are familiar with the life we live and grateful for it.
