Illegal immigrants matter, says 'Twilight' director
Director Chris Weitz focused not on politics, but on the lengths a father will go to give his son a better life.
Published: July 18, 2011 Updated: 12:55 p.m.

By YVETTE CABRERA
COLUMNIST
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ycabrera@ocregister.com

It is one of the most controversial and thorniest issues of our generation. But that didn't stop director Chris Weitz from taking on a movie centered on the life of an undocumented Mexican immigrant.

Too many people today – including politicians – would rather ignore the issue of illegal immigration altogether than find middle ground. Instead, we've let the divisions take over the debate.

So much so, that some have lost sight of the fact that we're talking about human beings — 11 million of them.

So when I heard of the recently released film "A Better Life," I was intrigued. Part of it had to do with my own background, being the daughter of Mexican immigrants and of a father who worked most of his life in the United States as a gardener in the well-to-do neighborhoods of Santa Barbara.

In "A Better Life," the main character Carlos Galindo (played by Demian Bichir) is a single father who is undocumented and working as a gardener in Los Angeles to support his son Luis (José Julián).

Weitz isn't the director you'd think of for this topic. Weitz's last movie was "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," and illegal immigration is about as far removed from vampires and werewolves as you can get.

But Weitz, the son of an immigrant, found himself drawn to a script that focused not on politics, but on the complicated father-son relationship that arises in this dual status family.

In the film, Carlos aspires to give his son an education. He takes a huge risk to achieve this by taking a loan from his sister to buy a truck and gardener's tools so that he can strike out on his own. Yet, despite these efforts, Carlos' son, Luis, looks down on his working-class father.

"I have a 4-year-old son and that makes you realize just how much you would do to make things better for them, to make life easier for them," Weitz says. "I began to realize that what these immigrants are doing — people who are often despised or dismissed or are invisible because we close our eyes for our own convenience — they are really doing what anybody would do."

Interestingly, while the film landed in Weitz's lap thanks to a producer who knew of his Mexican heritage (his maternal grandmother is the Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, best known for starring in the Spanish language version of "Dracula"), he says he's come to realize how his father's experiences as a refugee from Nazi Germany also played into his decision to make the film.

"Here's the case of someone who in his own country was a second-class citizen. To him, America represented the chance to refashion his entire life and to make a life for his children in which they wouldn't suffer the indignities and hardship that he suffered at home," says Weitz, whose father, John Weitz, settled in New York City and became a legendary menswear fashion designer.

Weitz says he was able to lead a privileged life due to his father's hard work and success. So although he still sees the film as a tribute to Tovar and his Latino heritage, he also feels a rush of appreciation for his dad when he thinks of "A Better Life.'

"I feel that immigration — that goal of people coming to America, to make their families' lives better — is a universal one," says Weitz, who's co-directed such films as "About a Boy" and "American Pie."

And that's the strength of "A Better Life." Though Carlos Galindo is from Mexico, he could be from anywhere. And the struggle he faces as he tries to teach his defiant son how to navigate life's difficult moments is the struggle of any father.

Luis gets into fights at school, doesn't put much stock in his education and simmers with anger toward a father he views as a lowly gardener — a nobody — until the day his father's truck is stolen and they begin a journey not just to recover the truck, but to repair their relationship.

It's only then that Luis begins to understand what his father has gone through to give him a shot at the American Dream.

"It's really eventually about their discovering that each one of them is somebody," Weitz says.

That realization – that the undocumented immigrant is a somebody too — is a journey some in the political debate over illegal immigration have yet to take. They sneer at, vilify and attack immigrants whom they know little about.

The film's inspiration came about 25 years ago, says Weitz, when the gardener of one of the producer's friends had his truck stolen. After proposing that they go to the police and discovering that the gardener was undocumented, this friend realized he knew very little about his gardener's life.

That's why this film is well worth a trip to the theater. Because as we try to solve this illegal immigration issue, we shouldn't forget that beyond laws and economics and foreign relations, this issue also is about something as basic as love and sacrifice.

Contact the writer: 714-796-3649 or ycabrera@ocregister.com, or twitter.com/ycabreraocr

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