A Better Life

Directed by Chris Weitz. Starring Demian Bichir, José Julián, Dolores Heredia, Joaquín Cosío Club, IFI, Dublin, 98 min

HEAVEN SAVE us from Hollywood directors and their troubled consciences. Every now and then such a professional will look out the window and notice the poor folk toiling in the sun. If we're lucky, we'll get a gritty, naturalistic slice of film vérité. If not, we will end up with something like A Better Life.

Put simply (and gruesomely), the film is Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thievesremade by the man who gave us American Pieand the last Twilightepisode.

The impressive Demian Bichir (good in recent Irish picture The Runway) stars as Carlos, a hard- working Mexican gentleman who, now living in East LA, is having a few problems with his mildly disobedient teenage son Luis (José Julián, also strong). While Carlos, an undocumented alien, works in the gardens of the rich, the boy skips school, idolises football players and becomes dangerously intimate with local gang members.

Then Carlos decides to take a gamble. He borrows money to pay for a truck. On his first day as an independent contractor, one of his employees – an older man on whom he has taken pity – robs the vehicle and plunges poor Carlos into despair. Father and son begin prowling the streets in search of the stolen van. You can see what we mean about Bicycle Thieves.

To be fair, as well as being well- acted the film makes excellent use of its gritty locations. This rarely viewed corner of LA is one of the film’s uncredited stars.

But A Better Lifeis so schematic, so sentimental and – with its idealised portrait of "simple people" – so patronising that it ends up sticking awkwardly in the viewer's unlucky gullet. A dismal atmosphere of smugness hangs over the enterprise. One senses

the film-makers yearning to be congratulated on their generosity in reaching out to the unappreciated gardeners of Los Angeles County.

The intentions are good but the execution is badly muddled. American Piehad more to say about the socio-economic discontents of the underclass.