A Day Without a Mexican

This film is a perfect example of a brilliant idea with some poor follow-through. When I watched the preview to this film, I was handed the impression that this would be a documentary of sorts filled with potent information and life-changing ideas. I will be the first to say that the marketing of this film misled me. What I actually found when I started this film was instead a movie, filled with shallow characters, horrible acting, and clichéd moments. The only redeemable value of this film was the brief interruptions throughout the film that stop the motion to give us a moment of trivia about the lines from some of the characters. Outside of that, this film imploded into itself. I say this because by the end of the film, I felt that nothing was resolved and the end of the film changed nothing about California. Did anyone else feel that this was still a very hypocritical and racist film? I felt that the purpose of this film directed by Sergio Arau was to bring the Mexican population into a new and blinding light. What I witnessed in A Day Without a Mexican was that all the personal clichés that we assume about them are true, and that without them our economy in this country will fail (especially in California). It did not give a personal touch to the subject, it just reinforced the fact that they are our workers, not our friends or neighbors.

Director Arau had the platform to make an amazing social satire, but ultimately fell short. Why? Let me explain some of the downfalls of this film. The first is the acting. 'C' grade actors reenacting the events of the day that all the Mexicans disappeared is not a good start. There was not one actor or actress in this film that I could say was great to watch. These actors decreased the value and the overall effect of this film. Several times I was so caught up with how bad these actors were delivering their lines that I didn't care about any of the statements that Arau was making. I could have cared less, just get these actors off my screen. The two that stand out in my eyes as the worst were Caroline Aaron playing Aunt Gigi and John Getz (of my favorite film Blood Simple.) as the racist Senator who finds his heart of gold. Both of these performances were laughable. Everything they said and did drew attention away from the actual points of the film, thus decreasing the effects.

Second, it was the production. I kept waiting for two things to occur during this film. One, I felt as if at any time the set was just going to fall apart. The overall cheese factor of the production limited my excitement for this film. It reminded me of a child's drawing that you laminate. It may have that glossy look, but what's inside is just scribbles. Second, and I am serious here, I kept thinking that this was going to turn into a soft-core porn. It had the acting, the production, and even the sounds of a soft-core porn … so where was it? I think this accurately describes the feeling you have as you watch this movie. It is not pretty in any way.

Third, let's talk about the music. I wouldn't have minded some influential Mexican music being played throughout the film to set the scene and to place the emotion, but instead what I found were horrible covers of American music about California. It was pathetic. The tone of this film was ruined. A Day Without A Mexican was ruined from the beginning, but by this point (when the first song blazed through my stereo) it was forgotten.

Fourth, I mentioned before about how this film fails to successfully bring sympathy and knowledge about the Mexican population in California because it never addresses the clichés and stereotypes. This was a major flaw in this film. I wanted to feel as if they were just like you or me, just wronged by America. This never happened. From the opening scene when one of the actors says that her husband never goes anywhere without his teeth (and it was not addressed, but used as humor) I felt offended. Arau built threw in stereotypes as a form of humor that destroyed his film. Another one was the entire bit about the Mexican Files (parody of the X-Files) and the reference between UFOs and aliens towards the sombrero of a Mexican and America calling them 'illegal aliens' was prejudice in my eyes. It was an unfunny joke that continued to drop this film down several notches in my eyes. Couple this with all the references to Jose on the back of the milk carton as missing was just despicable. If an uneducated person watched this film, they would have seen it as a comedy instead of a social commentary on California. Those that argue that the trivia was helpful, it was not. It seemed random and thrown in at the last minute just to counter arguments that the film was becoming too much of a comedy.

Finally, the insanity of the ending is hardly worth mentioning.

Was this a cheesy sci-fi film, or an honest attempt to show the world the power of the Mexican population? Who knows? I don't think one could tell by just watching this film. Arau did a horrible job in creating this film. While I could see where he wanted to go with this picture, he never quite left the driveway. Instead he blew out his tires and ran into the main support of the house. Overall, it was pathetic. This was a horrible film that was marketed to bring in those hoping to see a well-crafted documentary. I felt cheated and lost by the end of this film. I do not suggest that anyone watches the movie or gives their money to this director.

It was a waste of time. This is your Public Service Announcement.

Grade: * out of *****

OK, so it wasn't some blockbuster that had a chance at an Oscar, but it did win a couple of awards at film festivals. You won't see brilliant acting or compelling dialog, but it was worth watching just to bring into focus the contributions of Latinos to our daily lives and our economy.

You may be feeding on a steady diet of Lou Dobbs' anti-immigration screed and not realize just how important Latinos are to the United States. Their contribution to out food supply and their presence in every aspect of our lives, not to mention the great Latino actors that we would miss.

It was the documentary part of this mocumentary that was satisfying and worthwhile. Check it out on the tube - you won't be disappointed; and you'll get a few laughs with your information.

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.

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.

Sergio Arau is a Mexican artist whose main work has been done in the field of visual arts and in music, but in 1998 he along with his wife Yareli Arizmendi, wrote and directed a short comedy named "A Day Without a Mexican", a fake documentary chronicling the fictitious events that happened in California when suddenly all the Hispanic people disappeared without any reason. Their fake documentary was a satire about U.S. immigrant policy and the unfair treatment the Hispanic immigrants received. Their work was well received but the couple decided to take their message to the main audience by turning their short film into a feature length film.

Like Arau's original short, the movie's premise is that for strange circumstances all the Hispanic immigrants (not only Mexicans) disappear of the state of California and the state is surrounded by a mysterious fog that isolates the people leaving them without the work that Hispanics usually do. The movie chronicles the events happening in that situation and showcases how important are the immigrants for the development of California.

Writer Yareli Arizmendi plays Lila, a reporter hired for her Latin looks who later becomes the center of the attention as she becomes "the last Latin in California". John Getz plays Senator Steven Abercombie III, an anti-immigrant politician who becomes governor of California after the actual Governor disappears due to Hispanic heritage. Muse Watson is Louis McClaire, owner of a ranch who understands the importance of the immigrant's work but who has to deal with his overtly patriotic and racist son George (Bru Muller).

These three main stories as well as other minor subplots get together to showcase different situations of the immigrants in California. Arau mixes "interviews with experts" giving opinions on the Hispanics disappearance and noticing the importance of their presence for the country. Using comedy as a medium to deliver his message, Arau's film delivers good laughs and flows smoothly most of the time, however, at times it is notorious that the project started as a short as there are scenes that seem to be shot only to reach the runtime of a feature length film.

Being a music video director before, Arau can't help but to display the influences of his previous work, giving the movie a modern albeit a bit MTV-like look. Also, the movie has been severely criticized for its highly fictitious premise. While this criticism is valid in the sense that the unexplained disappearance and the comedic tone do diminish the importance of the subject matter, Arau makes his point clear despite the flawed conception of his plot.

The acting is good on the main roles, but the apparently undeveloped script makes it look a bit forced at times. Arizmendi and Getz shine in their respective roles and without a doubt they are the driving force of the film. The rest of the cast is also good, but nothing spectacular. This in my opinion is due to the lack of details in the script that leaves some characters at a very shallow stereotypical level.

"A Day without a Mexican" may not be subtle in its approach, and probably it forces its message a bit too much, but still raises very important points and delivers its message without problems. The Arau couple had a brilliant idea and raised very good points, however, the film still feels as if it could had been better. Hopefully the couple will continue making films that will be better than this first attempt. 7/10. Interesting film.