Disputa em Família

Sleeper in this case refers to a movie not much publicized and not even reviewed in some of the usual places. Andy Garcia is wonderful. True, the plot is one of the usual good over evil ideas but the use of a winery and immigrant farm workers who depend on it's existence is very real today. The solutions to some of the problems show genuine, well thought processes and the people are shown as they really are...not to mention the location is superb! Santa Barbara is most beautiful and this picture does a good job of showing that. Since I watch movies for entertainment value rather than moral value this is a hit. Good dialog, good shots, a playful Andy....what else do you need?

This movie started out pretty entertaining and kept my attention with the conflict between the two twin brothers. Alan Arkin started slow, but just kept building nicely. Andy Garcia played both roles very nicely. However, about 45 minutes before the end of this very long movie, it turned into a mad, mad world slapstick which just insulted all the character and plot development that you as the viewer had invested. Should have just edited it to a tight 90-100 minutes and had a nice tense ending. What a waste.

(This is an edited/revised post):

This film deeply affected me in two ways, which I will present in reverse chronological order:

2) The movie was shot largely on location, in and around my hometown of Santa Barbara. When I saw it in 1996, I was nine years removed from home and doing radio in Missouri. It was good to see home again.

1) However, I had the opportunity to go home in early 1995 when this was being shot. To his security team's utter horror, I attempted to park near the SB County Courthouse, somewhere dangerously close to (read: half a block away from) Andy Garcia's trailer. After several contentious profanities were hurled at me I moved the car, during which time I uttered a wish out loud that the film would turn out to be an utterly unwatchable piece of crap, and would completely tank at the box office.

Moral of the story? Don't go on location and then let your people treat a local like something stuck to your shoe -- he just might have unknown powers in putting curses.

To the film's credit, they did have the good taste to shoot at Papagallo's on De La Guerra Plaza (try the ceviche), and it also showed the annual Summer Solstice Parade in a pretty good light.

EDIT: Since I wrote most of the above, I've had occasion to revisit this movie (there was nothing better on HBO that night), and I've reluctantly come to the conclusion it really is funny. Mostly due to the performances of Alan Arkin and Joe ("Joey Pants") Pantoliano.

Okay, so I ran afoul of Andy Garcia's people during the shoot and they honked me off. And then my first viewing of the film left me cold. I've since warmed up to it (and removed my negative comments in this edit). Take that for what it's worth -- and I hope it's worth something, because I'm not a big fan of eating crow in public.

Garcia, as always, is great in this socially sensitive film about the plight of "the worker" and small farmers. It also is a very entertaining romantic comedy. A must see for Garcia Fans. Alan Arkin is great as "Lou" and don't miss an inspired perfomance by Joe Pantoliano as a weasily coward of a lawyer who redeems himself in the end...

This is a better than average film. i am not an Andy Garcia fan, but I must admit he was charming and likable in this movie. I was a little confused that illegal aliens were presented in such a positive light. I found this a bit unbelievable, but I guess it had to be done for the story to work the way the director wanted it to. Still, as long as you throw believability out the door (as you have to do with most Hollywood movies anyway) it's not a bad way to spend a few hours. I don't understand why I have to make my review ten lines before it can be published. Maybe IMDb could e-mail me a reason for this. I've read several reviews much shorter than mine. How are they being published?