Only love...

Title: La otra familia [The other family] (Mexico, 2011)

Summary: Jean Paul and José María -Chema- are a newly-wed, gay couple. Hendrix is a 7 year-old boy whose mom's addicted to crack. Ivana, a lesbian mutual friend, takes Hendrix to Jean Paul and Chema so they can take care of him while his mother's in rehabilitation. They get attached to him and plan to keep him... But his mother's boyfriend has other plans for the boy.

When Aio first watched this film (she tends to go to the cinema a lot more often than I do...and I should be ashamed orz), she told me: "You HAVE to watch it. It almost, almost made me cry". Fact is...it's hard to make her cry XD

So, she bought it as soon as she saw it in stores and lent it to me. I watched it today. And I was quite pleased.

It's like...4 stories in one. And all found each other through Hendrix, the little boy. But they mostly talk about how difficult it is for a gay couple to adopt a kid without being subject of prejudice and all that, from society. And how children can have a "normal family" or a disfunctional one not mattering whether they live with a mother and a father, only a mother, only a father, or two fathers or two mothers.

Jean Paul (Jorge Salinas) and Chema (Luis Roberto Guzmán) are way too cuuuuute when they're together~ :3 They absolutely do look and act like a gay couple. I mean, they don't look exaggerated or too heterosexual. They're just right~ :3 And there are some bed scenes. Nothing too  flashy, because this is a sweet movie! D: But it was nicely treated and had nothing morbid in it, which I applaud because most people think gay movies are only about that u.ú

Jean Paul, Hendrix and Chema

And although Chema's horrible with Hendrix (Bruno Loza) at first, when he starts liking him, he's a supercute daddy~ °((>w<))° And he gets way too clingy with his new baby and redecorates his bedroom and takes him to school and loves him so very much T^T He was such a lovely mommy~ °((>w<))°

Also, this is a drama film... So...it started a bit slow. But I think it was because they were introducing most of the main stories there by inserting alternate scenes of each of them. And then, the last hour, is quite tense...because you really don't know what's going to happen to the poor little boy (although one suspects it, of course XD) because everything's just so complicated and sad and unfair and all that ;^;

I didn't cry, but it did make me think a lot. And I guess that was the main goal of the film. So, I suppose it was nicely done :3 I also liked the way they dealt with such a delicate subject, mostly in a society where sexism is something you live with everyday. And mexican society is one of those... >>

People say Mexico produces low quality films (pity, because mexican movies used to be quite nice in last century's 50s u.u) but this one's fairly nice. Maybe because it was produced by the 20th Century Fox and all. It had a bit more budget than other independent films.

I'm not sure (and I don't think) this film was released in USA or Canada. Obviously, I seriously doubt it was released in Europe too XD So, I dunno if you'll have any chance to watch it. Since it was produced by 20th Century Fox, I hope it can be found out there in DVD format or something. If you find it, watch it. It's a good film u.u :)

PS: As I wrote this (about four or five hours ago), my grandpa finally passed away. I'd like to dedicate this entry to him. He used to have a gay friend he loved lots :3 

Para ti, abuelito: Manuel Hernández Segura. Gracias por enseñarme a preparar café y té con leche, frijoles con sazonados con cebolla y por dejarnos la receta de la birria. Gracias por cuidarme, por estar ahí siempre, por prestarme tus libros para mis tareas (hasta la Universidad), por ir por mí a la escuela, por las risas, los regaños, las canciones de Cri-cri, las pláticas eternas sobre historia de nuestro país y por enseñarme que uno debe seguir haciendo lo que le gusta, sin importar las circunstancias que nos rodeen. Gracias por ser práctico, por tus ceños fruncidos y tus palabras de aliento. Te amo mucho, abuelito de sololoy. Donde quiera que estés, gracias por todo. Que Dios te bendiga y te tenga en su Santa Gloria.