I want to love every movie I watch. Unfortunately, the majority of the time that isn't the case.
There is a theme in recent documentaries of being all over the place and leaving out details.
For the first 15 minutes, I knew nothing about Cindy (the lead) or what happened to her. They didn't even talk about what had happened. You hear calls between her and the kids etc, but no clue why. Please, start with the background story first and make them more linear.
This was more an emotional plea than factual and honest. You don't live with someone who deals drugs and has guns all over and you either don't know or not involved. Don't buy it. I feel REALLY horrible for the kids.
Sentences ARE ridiculous and I have issues with the whole industry of drugs/crimes etc. (meaning I don't think doing drugs should be a crime) However, I don't like manipulative filmmakers playing down certain facts to reach an emotional conclusion.
But how do you leave out the trial? Nothing from the other side, like the prosecutor, defense attorney, jurors etc. We learned pretty much NOTHING about why she went to prison (besides just the overall allegation). If you make a movie about injustice SHOW IT, don't talk about it. You just don't get sentenced to prison for 15 years for being a girlfriend. They basically talked about how much they love their mom for 90 minutes. Why did the FEDS wait 6 years after dropping the case? There are more questions than answers in this.
Whatever happened to her is messed up, but without all the facts it felt empty and incomplete. Plus it could have been 15 minutes shorter. A lot of repetitive stuff.
The girls were the most amazing part. The end felt a bit rushed. They should have shown more of the process. Lots of crying and hugging.
One critic wrote: "Rudy Valdez has no distance from the material, which works simultaneously in the film's favor and, largely, its disfavor." I tend to agree. It just felt like a home movie, but not like a documentary.
It's worth watching, but it could have been so much better.
UPDATE! After thinking about it more, it was actually worse than I initially wrote. You learned nothing about why there was an injustice. Don't make a film about mandatory sentences and/or injustice and now show anything about it. It was 90 minutes of repetitive calls from the children to the mom for over 9 years. That was pretty much it, but that's not enough for a film.
