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A Better Life Starring Demian Bichir, Jose Julian and Eddie (Piolin) Sotelo. Directed by Chris Weitz. ***

The American dream does not possess a passport. It's a shape-shifting entity that transcends all brand of boundary - whether it be geographical, spiritual or racial.

After all, the dream was created by outsiders at the dawn of Hollywood's Golden Age, and has since become synonymous with all that is good and great about America. The real irony of the dream these days is that it's more relevant to people outside the US of A, particularly our relatively impoverished neighbours south of San Diego.

Mexico is North America's have-not family member, and we can feel all the stigma that comes with poverty in the opening scenes of Chris Weitz's A Better Life.

In the early haze of a Los Angeles morning, gardeners move through the groomed crabgrass and manicured exotic blooms of the hill dwellers. The work looks back-breaking and largely under-unappreciated by the rich folk who pay the bill, but for Carlos Galindo (Demian Bichir) and Blasco Martinez (Joaquin Cosio), being the worker ants who keep Los Angeles scented with eucalyptus offers more than a sense of purpose: It affords their very survival as "illegal immigrants.''

For Blasco, landscaping for the rich and famous and entirely invisible (at least in this film) has given him a chance for a "better life: " He's about to head back to Mexico and live on his own farm.

For Carlos, things are still a little wobbly. So when Blasco offers to sell him the gardening business, along with the truck and all the tools, Carlos is certainly tempted. But he's a smart, cautious and highly moral man, and he believes he doesn't really have the resources or security to pull it off.

If it fails, he could lose everything. Even if he gets pulled over for a traffic ticket, he could wind up back in Mexico in a matter of hours.

The fact that Carlos resists temptation, and truly questions the promise of a "better life'' that comes with owning his own business, gives Weitz's film a complexity that it could have missed altogether, had it simply imbibed the red, white and blue potion without question.

Watching Carlos struggle with his decision immediately places the audience in his well-worn work boots, and gives us a chance to survey his reality - which doesn't come with all the assurances and rights we take for granted as citizens.

Eventually, we feel the same pull as Carlos. We want to see him succeed, and we get sucked into the American dream on a deeply emotional level, because we think it's the only way he's going to make a better life for himself and his son, Luis (Jose Julian).

Carlos is so full of hope shortly after he makes the deal, he can barely contain himself. But things fall apart all too quickly. The truck is stolen with the tools, leaving Carlos combing the streets of L.A., looking for a generic pickup truck.

As a stand-alone figure, Carlos could be the modern Job who stretches his hands toward heaven and asks: Why Me? Yet, that's the real beauty and central source of sympathy for Carlos: He never feels sorry for himself, even when his life really hits the skids.

Commenting, and frequently criticizing, Carlos for his upbeat belief in self-improvement, Luis becomes our touchstone for a more cynical view. It's not that he's a particularly dark kid, but he attends a tough school and gets hassled by cops who assume he's a gang member because he's a young Latino.

Watching the two men move through a rather unique father and son bond proves to be one of the more dramatic components of the movie, not just because it accesses all the universals, but because it's so well done.

Beyond this dynamic duo, Weitz finds a third central character in the form of the L.A. landscape. Appearing entirely Eden-like when we're in the gardens with Carlos, but positively rundown and seedy when he's in his own element, the city assumes all the dimensions of the American dream itself.

It all comes together in a surprisingly subtle little melodrama about finding your place in the world, and the noble struggle of trying to make a "better life.''

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/movie-guide/American+dream+gets+reality+check/5517447/story.html#ixzz1a5xd59o4

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