3 Américas (2007)

That was an excellent one.

Awesome Movie

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The points that this movie gets are only earned in the idea behind the plot as provoking and intriguing to both North and South American audiences. Unfortunately, however, all this is lost in a mess of amateur acting and poor writing. América is a sassy teenage doing her best in Boston to leave behind her Argentinian heritage. However, horrible events leave América without a guardian and forced to leave Boston for Argentina to live with her anti-American grandmother. The cultural divide between América and her grandmother is far too obvious; there is little in there relationship that develops or is left up to the imagination of the audience. This lack of creativity is characteristic of every relationship in the movie. América befriends an older man who works on their houses. The relationship becomes somewhat romantic, however it never really resolves and ends awkwardly. This movie fails to provide significant meaning or intrigue with its weak writing and poor acting of a theme that had great potential to achieve both.

After the death of her aunt, young America is sent to Argentina to live with her bitter and controlling grandmother. It is a difficult transition for the trouble teen that has a history of bad-tempered outbursts and shoplifting. She does not respect her grandmother and refuses to obey her. The plot at the beginning progresses very slowly and the acting by the characters in the scenes in the US leaves something to be desired. Once America arrives in Argentina her transition from rebel to young lady takes place extremely slowly and one wonders if it will ever take place. Though her grandmother seems strict at first, the audience quickly takes her side and feels sorry for all of the difficulties she has to go through because of her granddaughter and her stroke. The music in the movie was perfectly suited to the scenes. At first I was disinterested in the movie and wondered if it would be worth finishing but once America begins her journey to becoming mature the movie is really worth watching.

This is a truly well-made and heartfelt film about a girl growing up in difficult circumstances. There are quite a few films that cover the subject matter, but very few manage to capture it with as much emotion, sincerity and realism as this once does. I can't understand why films like this one are never given the attention they rightfully deserve--films that have something to say and know how to say them, refusing to compromise their integrity or pander to sensationalism--while cinemas are overflowing with dime-a-dozen films that are either remakes or retreads of other movies that were not very good in the first place. In the .22 caliber world of film-making that we currently live in, movies like "3 Americas" are like a .357 magnum.

We saw 3 Americas at a special screening on May 3rd, 2008 at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, followed by a question and answer session attended by the Writer/Director, Cristina Cornejo, her co-producer and several of the actors. The story line revolves around America, a 15-year-old American girl who lives in the United States but was born in Argentina. An orphan who lives with her aunt and an abusive uncle, an unfortunate tragedy results in her suddenly returning to Argentina to live with her Maternal Grandmother.Set in both Boston and Buenos Aires, the movie unfortunately suffers from amateurish acting for the first 25% of the movie, which takes place at its start in the United States. The movie does attempt to redeem itself once the story moves to Argentina, where the local actors were more professional and where the lead actress, Kristen Gonzales (America) obviously was able to benefit from the professionalism and support of the Argentinean cast.The story itself is a somewhat uneven tale of redemption in the face of adversity once America is forced to face up to her immaturity as a result of an unfortunate circumstance.I appreciated the effort that the Director/Writer made in filming this story, which she indicated was somewhat biographical. Ms. Cornejo has not secured an agreement to release the movie to-date consequently not very many people may see a decent first effort. It is unfortunate that anyone looking to take this movie on will first need to navigate a poorly preformed 30 minutes before the more qualitative part of the film kicks in.