Sadly Over-hyped

Perfectly adorable

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Mi Familia is a mini masterpiece. It uses all manner of genre styles to tell its story and amazingly it works. This is a film with so much passion and significance it is almost tiring to praise it for fear of running out of breath. You could call this film an epic or a saga since it deals with many generations of the same family. The film never shies away from making a social comment or two and deals directly with the issues at hand in whatever time period it happens to take place in. The family has never had an easy life, but the closing statement rings true in that despite the hardships they have been made to endure they have lead an incredibly good life. More than twice this family is broken up by the racial hatred and civilly unjust policies of their times, but they always stick together and no matter what happens or who does what this family is truly unbreakable. All performances are fantastic but there is one the really sticks out. Jimmy Smits has proved time and again that he is a capable actor but his work in this film is simply amazing.

'My Family' is a compelling tale spanning three generations about a family of Mexican origin living in Los Angeles. It starts with the father of the family, Jose Sanchez (terrifically played by Jacob Vargas), making a one year journey on foot from Mexico to Los Angeles. Once there, he meets and marries the love of his life, Maria (Jennifer Lopez, in an interesting performance). After, Maria survives a tragic separation, she and Jose settle in Los Angeles and raise a family of six.There is a tremendous amount of expectation here, namely because Francis Ford Coppola, who crafted arguably the most exhilarating family saga in the Godfather pictures, is an executive producer. But, My Family is nowhere near in the same league as films like 'The Godfather'. Rather, 'My Family' turns out to be a great film that could have been better. One glaring flaw is in the script written by Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas is that too often, the script relies on tragedies to stir our emotions. Consequently, the emotion presented in the film feel fake at times. Particularly, in the scenes involving Jimmy attempting to bond with his only son, Carlitos.Despite the missteps in the film, there are many positives to draw upon. The strong performances of the cast. Jimmy Smits, in particular, dominates the film with an intense and yet affecting performance. The film hardly ever succumbs to being a standard tear-jerker or phony. Instead, the film succeeds at creating a touching and provocative portrait of a family's struggles and tribulations in a world that hardly seems just.

Very interesting film, mainly because it managed to avoid the cliches and the endless navel gazing that most movies with that theme would fall into. The story flowed gracefully and realistically and showcased a great cast of actors in unpretentious dramatic situations.

This is one of the best Latino movies I ever see. Story is great and the problems are real. The characters are well played. If you like "the goodfather" here's the hispanic version!