Director: Patricia Riggen
Starring: Kate Del Castillo, Adrian Alonso, Eugenio Derbez, America Ferrera, Jesse Garcia

- Reviewed by Vickie

You know, sometimes the simplest stories are the best ones. You don't always need a multitude of plot twists and subplots and intricate plotting. Sometimes all you need is a mom who loves her son, and a son who loves his mom.

That love forms the foundation for this poignant road movie about nine-year-old Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), a Mexican boy whose mother, Rosario (Kate del Castillo), fled Mexico four years earlier to move to the U.S. (illegally) in the hopes of setting up a new life and eventually bringing Carlitos to live with her. But the weeks since her departure turned into months, and the months became years, and the only things keeping the two connected are their fierce bond and a treasured phone call every Sunday at 10am sharp.

Carlitos misses his mom and, after the death of his grandmother (who'd been caring for him), he decides he's waited long enough—if she's not coming back to him, then he's going to go to her. So, with all his savings in his pocket, he sets out alone on a perilous journey to sneak into America and find Rosario in Los Angeles, and the movie unfolds over the course of seven days—from one Sunday to the next. His journey is made slightly easier at the outset thanks to a pair of moronic American siblings (America Ferrera, Jesse Garcia), who try to smuggle him through customs and wind up losing him. The remainder of the film chronicles plucky Carlitos as he tries to make his way from El Paso, Texas, to L.A., eventually aided by a very reluctant fellow illegal named Enrique (Eugenio Derbez), who's rather eat glass than be saddled with a little kid. Nonetheless, the mismatched—and frequently bickering—duo are united in their adversity, as they attempt to fly below INS radar and get where they need to go.

Now, I will fully cop to being a sucker for exactly this kind of movie. I love little-engine-that-could stories and Carlitos is an adorable, charming, sympathetic and moving little engine. Huge kudos to young Adrian Alonso for a completely engaging performance; in the wrong hands (i.e., in the hands of many typical "Hollywood" child actors) Carlitos would have been precocious and annoying. Instead, the more you watch him the more you desperately want him to finally be reunited with Rosario.

Director Patricia Riggen crafts a solid story that's admittedly fairly straightforward and one that simultaneously sheds some light on the realities of living as an illegal immigrant in America. But it's also infused with a big dose of heart that leaves you smiling by the time you walk out. And, make no mistake, you will smile: the story is predictably happy by the time the closing credits roll. Sure, it might not make you devolve into a weeping mess like it did me, but Under the Same Moon more than earns the "feel-good" label that I'm going to slap upon it.

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