At first, I thought this film had some promise. It could have gone either way - a drama or a comedy. It never made up its mind. There were some genuinely funny scenes, engaging enough to assume we could smile, if not laugh out loud. But that was not to be. Acting went over the top - one actor after another striving to be a Cuban, but none succeeding. Tomei was outrageously bad - phony accent, incomprehensible mood swings. Nothing about her character was consistent. As a matter of fact, none of the characters made much sense. Poor Chazz Palmenteri (Lt. Pirelli), an actor of some substance, had no substance here - the script not allowing meaning or motivation for his character. Alfred Molina (Perez) started out as dark and brooding, his love for the beautiful Carmela (Angela Houston) ruling his every thought. Then when he finally finds her, you'd think, wow, now this guy's going to go crazy to get her (after all, it's been twenty years in prison thinking only of her). What does he do? Runs away because an alarm system went off - and stays away. Mind you, this is his great love. And Carmela. What's with her? She's been prostrate for 20 yrs. thinking only of Perez and along comes a cop (Chazz) and she's totally overwhelmed. Her brother does not seem to not want Carmela and Perez to reunite, but then, for no reason at all, when he sees Perez at a dance where Carmella is dancing happily with Chazz, he screams to Carmela something like "Look, look, it's Perez, he's here." Carmela pulls out a gun and aims it at poor Perez - she's going to shoot him! OK, so she doesn't recognize him, maybe, but why shoot the poor guy who is in no way threatening, just a sad, pleading face on the dance floor. Explain that to me. Sorry, I don't see it. If ever there was a film where character motivation was weak, indeed, absent, this is it.
Review of The Perez Family
