A Day Without a Mexican

Sergio Arau's satire "A Day Without a Mexican" takes a poignant look at something that has been in the news lately. Mr. Arau's new take on the theme he has explored already, give us a vision about how inter connected we are in this country. This movie will resonate more with people from California. Mexicans in that state account for most of the immigrants, illegal, or otherwise.

We are given the premise that a fog is enveloping the state and all Mexicans have disappeared into it. The Anglos, so dependent for much of the work from Mexicans don't seem to be coping well when the reality about having to do something they take for granted will be done by their Mexican workers.

Yareli Arizmendi and Eduardo Palomo do fine work under Mr. Arau's direction.

When a mysterious fog surrounds the boundaries of California, there is a communication breakdown and all the Mexicans disappear, affecting the economy and the state stops working missing the Mexican workers and dwellers.

"A Day without a Mexican" is a promising idea about the importance of Mexican immigrants the in the economy of California. There are several references to prominent Mexican personalities that have immigrated to USA and also to the states that belonged to Mexico and have been incorporated to the USA. However, the plot is limited to one joke only and wasted in a boring and unnecessary soap-opera. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Um Dia sem Mexicanos" ("A Day Without Mexicans")

I just finished watching A Day Without a Mexican, so my comments are fresh.

As some other reviewers have mentioned, this film had the potential to be much more in terms of social commentary. The fact that it went in a comedic direction isn't bad in itself, it's just the execution of everything seemed so flawed.

There were chances to make statements, and to be relevant; one can still do that while still being funny. It's just -- I never laughed during the entire film, and I never felt as if any point was driven home, so it failed both goals.

I won't call this a bad film, but it's certainly not worth the $4 rental fee. If it shows up on TV for free, go ahead and watch it, otherwise find something else to spend your money on. Stereotypes can be used to convey a serious message (see Hollywood Shuffle), however I'm not sure what this film's message really was. Was it that Mexicans are a cheap economic revenue? That they're our maids, and token love interests?

As for bad acting, I can get over that. The problem is with the script. The initial idea sounds great, but the initial idea needs followed up with original and clever thought; that's where this film went downhill quickly.

This film got it's press from the "inflammatory" title, but the ad campaign was aimed to put your butt in the movie seat, and it worked for this micro-budget movie... it ended up with a profit in Los Angeles alone. This was quite clever because the film got a much larger audience than it would have received otherwise, regardless of anyone's personal feelings. The ads were done so that any reasonably intelligent person could see the tongue-in-cheek manner in which the ad campaign was carried out, and those who couldn't, well... they'd probably go see the movie just so they could be even more angry.

So I went to see the movie, not so much because of the controversy, but to see how good a film had been put together. I was really disappointed. For as clever a campaign had been crafted to get people to see their movie, the filmmakers failed miserably at keeping them interested.

The storyline is not too terribly involving, and the "morality tale" message is really beat into your head with a hammer from the first minute all the way to the end. The acting is amateurish... it had a very distinct high school film project look and feel to it, and although I'm no stranger to low budget films... this one really looked bad. The film quality was so terribly grainy that it was distracting, and the attempts at "visual effects" even moreso. I would have been more impressed and they would have saved a few bucks if they'd left them out.

The coup d'etat... I fell asleep. And I had really wanted to like this movie... I went in having a really good feeling about it.

The film would probably have made a great half hour after school special or educational video, with all of the boring and tedious plot left out and all of the interesting factoids about the Mexican contribution to American culture left in. I know many of my Mexican friends who saw it got a kick out of some of the cultural in-jokes in the movie, but almost across the board they agree with me that the movie wasn't very good.

So there you go. If you have a burning desire to learn some fairly obvious facts about Mexican culture in California, jump right in. My feeling is that people who are ignorant to the information put forward in the film are probably not inclined to care or want to know anyway... but there's never any harm in trying to get the word out. All minorities in the U.S. have historically been mistreated and maligned, and if one were really inclined to learn some perspective about American treatment of Mexicans, Indians, Blacks, Asians... I would suggest a read of 'A People's History of the United States' by Howard Zinn. NOW THAT'S AN EYE OPENER.

It's a dark comedy, people. And it's brilliantly done. Sure, it's made on a low budget, with mostly unknown cast, but it really is an interesting question-if we deport all the Mexicans, what would happen to a city like Los Angeles where they fill a major role in so many areas of life and commerce. In this case, the world falls apart, and the results are entertaining but telling. There's always a ring of truth amidst the satire and humor. I saw this on a whim years ago when it first came out, and I continue to remember it all these years later. That's how powerful it is. Deserves a look for anyone debating immigration because of the questions it inspires. And it's also a diverting film. Highly recommended.