My Family (Mi Familia)

REVIEW
A sometimes engrossing but ultimately unfocused three-generational family saga, this failed attempt at a Mexican-American Godfather was produced by Francis Ford Coppola and pays homage to his epic. Following an immigrant's life from his arrival to Los Angeles until the time his last grandchild leaves his household, the film tries to show the strength of its characters through heartbreaking tragedy, inflicting upon them one horrible event after another. The weepy story is at its best when it balances the heavy drama with a lighter tone, supplied by Olmos as narrator. My Family vividly captures several decades in a period East Los Angeles, the dust of which contrasts sharply with the art deco of a white West L.A.