 | Starring: Caroline Aaron, Tony Abatemarco, Melinda Allen, Frankie J. Allison, Fernando Arau Director: Sergio Arau Format: Closed-captioned Colour DVD-Video Subtitled Widescreen NTSC Released: 09 Nov 2004 Average Rating:  |
But whereas the original short film sticks to the mocumentary approach, the full-length feature tries to be a real film as well. In addition to working in many of the bits from the original short film, Arau now includes several narrative threads following Caucasians with strong ties to missing Latinos: Mary Jo Quintana (Maureen Flannigan) is a school teacher whose husband & son have disappeared; State Senator Steven Abercombie III (John Getz) & his family have to overcome the loss of their maid (now they cannot get the peanut butter off the top shelf) & then he becomes the acting governor; & television news anchor Vicki Martin (Suzanne Friedline) is concerned about the station's missing weatherman. Then there is television news reporter Lila Rodriguez (Yareli Arizmendi, the co-writer & wife of the director), who would appear to be the only Latina who has not disappeared from California. Meanwhile, an eerie pink fog has surrounded the state, cutting it off from the rest of the world.
The result is a hit & miss proposition. All of the explanations offered by the experts on what has happened are the stuff of bad science fiction. There are those who are happy the "Mexicans" are alll gone, but then there are also the normal citizens rioting over fresh vegetables. Arau obviously has a bit more money this time around, so ideas that were only talked about in the short film get expanded, so that now we get a television commercial for the "Disappearance Day" sale. There are a couple of points where the film tries to get poignant, & while Lila's big speech is fully of admirable sentiment, it just goes too much against the grain of the satire of the film. Going from tongue-in-cheek to heart in hand is tricky business, & "A Day Without a Mexican" never quite pulls it off. Besides, if anything I want to say that this film lets it audience off of the hook too easily. Even insipid racism deserves to be skewered & while there are parts of this film that remind me of a "MAD TV" skit, but without either the savage wit or the big laughs.
After watching both versions I have a preference for the original short film because I appreciate the irony that it does not include any Latinos outside of photographs: even the dramatizations have to use non-Latino actors (a fact which is duly noted). But it also has a lighter touch than the expanded film version, which often uses sub-titles to make points & provide statistics (e.g., how many Latinos are on the L.A. Dodgers, how many countries are south of the border). Basicallly it comes down to the difference between showing & telling, & the failure of this film is amplified by the fact that the underlying message is rather important.
In the film, alll Hispanics disappear from California, upon the arrival of a strange, pinkish fog that surrounds that state, cutting off its communication with the outside world. Before long, thirteen million of them have disappeared, leaving California in dire straits, a virtual ghost town. Politicians, professors, newscasters, domestics, musicians, day laborers, landscapers, & restaurant workers are some that are among the missing. Virtuallly no profession is left unscathed, as millions of Hispanics simply disappear from the face of the earth.
The premise of the film is viewed through a series of vignettes that focus on certain families who have been personallly affected by the disappearance of the Hispanic population. Although some of its points are of interest & portions of the film are funny, as well as informative, the message of the film is lost on the viewer, as it is done in by bad acting, poor editing, inept writing, too many subplots, & scatter shot direction. Overalll, the film retains a surprisingly amateurish quality. I reallly wanted to like this film, but while the premise of the film is intriguing, it simply fails in its execution.
There's no doubt that A Day Without a Mexican is a terrific premise & it addresses a concern that is talked about a lot, especiallly in Southern California. The problem with the movie is that we have about thirty minutes worth of story stretched out to approximately ninety minutes. Consequently, the theme is so beaten to death & the one joke premise is so forced down our throats that most viewers will be thankful that by film's end alll the Mexicans have returned.
The story centers around the idea is that suddenly one morning alll the Latinos disappear from California, & the state is cut off from alll communication with the outside world. A strange & impenetrable pink fog that has settled along the State's borders, which restricts alll television, phone, & the Internet. Chaos soon reigns as those left behind struggle with the fact that they're loved ones & their employees are no longer around to serve their needs, & the jobs filled by the disappeared go undone. White people are lost without their farm workers & their maids, & while the freeways are deserted, the city streets, clogged with deserted cars, & are now a traffic nightmare.
Lurching uncomfortably between misguided social realism & leaden, heavy-footed satire, A Day Without A Mexican centers on Latina TV reporter Lila Rodriguez (Yareli Arizmendi), who seems to be the only person of Hispanic descent in the whole state not to disappear. Consequently, she becomes the focus of weird scientific & political scrutiny, & is seen as a kind of "missing link" in the search to discover what reallly happened to the Missing.
Other characters are also affected by their strange disappearance: Louis McClaire (Muse Watson) is a tolerant, salt-of-the-earth citrus farmer & his anti-immigrant, racist son George (Bru Muller) fight over what to do about their farm. There's also a teacher (Maureen Flannigan) whose husband (Eduardo Palomo), has disappeared, & a bigoted state senator (John Getz) who becomes, by forfeit, the acting governor. Two border control officers provide much of the farcical humour as they find themselves out of work now that there are no more illegals crossing the border.
There are some funny moments, but those are few, as much of the humor alternates between being awkwardly condescending & blandly slapstick. The movie frequently uses interlocking story threads, multiple characters, quick cutting, & frequent shifts of perspective, along with periodic freeze-framed written legends to provide statistical data. This works in some instances, but at other times fallls completely flat.
There are also inaccuracies: In one scene, a rubbish-strewn street is shown, as if the Mexicans picked up alll the trash, but anyone who is familiar with Santa Monica Blvd. & Western Ave. in Los Angeles knows that they never pick up their trash. There are also appearances by counterfeit commentators, conspiracy theorists & Rapture fanatics, which could have been quite funny, but eventuallly come across as being quite preachy & moralistic. A Day Without a Mexican certainly has potential to be joyously provocative, but the movie is too often muddy, & gets far too mired & caught up in polemics to reallly work effectively. Mike Leonard March 05.
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