Closer to Home

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and Intelligent story
Review: "Closer To Home" is a story about two people from two different cultures whose coming together comes about from following two completely different paths. Dalisay is a young Filipina from a poor but loving family who will do anything to help her family. Anything, that is, except sacrifice her morals or integrity. She agrees to leave her home and all she loves to help save her sister and her financially troubled family.(The review below from M. Brady beautifully describes how well the movie captures life of the poor in the provinces)
Dean is an American from a quite dysfunctional family who doesn't have the first idea of how to be in a relationship. He arranges to bring Dalisay to America to be his wife but everything must be on his terms. His concept of a happy family is incomplete because he never experienced it himself. He's not a bad person, just unprepared to deal with a real relationship which must include compromise and understanding. I ended up feeling sorry for him.
Of course, the different cultures, different goals and different family experiences leads to difficulty in their relationship.
The two reviews from DGreen and Anonymous try to blame Dalisay for the problems but they seem to have completely missed many points of the film. It's only circumstances after her arrival that lead her to rethink her plan. Look thru her exterior and you find a strong person who will endure great sacrifice to help those she loves. (Also, many people enter this country every day under many different types of visas, some more valid than others, and many stay long after they expire, so all the comments about visa laws are completely irrelevant to this story.)
The scenes in the Philippines are warm and colorful which mirrors Dalsisay's life in which she's surrounded by family and people who love her. In America the scenes are more cold and stark which mirrors Deans more empty life. Subtle but clever.
Not to give away too much but the movie ends on a note of hope rather than a Hollywood "happily ever after" type ending that some people may prefer. But I'll take hope anytime. In reality that's often the best we can do.
(Ps. I learned from reading several reviews that this movie was written and directed by an American.)


Rating:
Summary: Walk a mile in a Filipino's shoes
Review: Closer to Home is a high quality, award winning movie with a great story as well as much about life in small towns in The Philippines. I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Watch and Learn
Review: I agree with the last review in part. The whole movie builds the Filipino girl up to be a saint while the American guy is just pathetic. Then she decides she "doesn't love him" and goes off to seek her pot of gold. That's not the deal. She was allowed to come here to marry. You're free to decide you "don't love" someone - but you're not free to stay if you do. This film is "Exhibit A" why we have the laws we do - to protect Americans from dishonest opportunists like this girl. Girls that will use some poor sap to get here. And then live off the fat of the land stored up by legitimate Americans. The movie spends all its time making the girl sympathetic and disguising that she's just another opportunist. Or, rather, justifying it. All the sympathetic treatment the film gives her and all her tears can't change the meaning - the dishonesty - of her final action. I think this film is worth seeing. Especially for potential saps thinking about importing a foreign honey. Get past all the charming shyness and submissive mannerisms and look at her character and intentions and make sure you both understand just what the deal is.

Rating:
Summary: A thought provoking film.
Review: I received Closer To Home from my brother who knows I'm a big movie fan. Whata pleasant surprise to see such a good film that I had never heard of. I logged on here to help spread the word and was surprised to see half the people here LOVED it and half HATED it!
I actually watched it again to see what I missed before writing this. I liked it even more the second time so I reread the reviews to see what they missed. They apparently missed quite a bit.
The guy who goes on and on about visa law seems to have a problem distinguishing reality and fiction. I get the distinct impression that he's in the middle of arranging his own Asian wedding and freaked out at the suggestion that they don't always work out. As far as immigration laws, did you consider that she got her visa from a guy in a go-go bar? I think it might be safe to assume that some legalities may have been bent,and therefore, as it was suggested by another reviewer, it's irrelevant to this story of FICTION.
The fellow who asks what is the point of watching a poor soul have his dreams crushed at every turn, there is a point.
The point is that you can't buy happiness. This is a story about a person who embraces the idea of family and a person who rejects the concept.
The Filipina girl will go to great lenghts to help her family but the American treats his family with total contempt and disregard. You can't treat your own family that way and expect to buy happiness out of a catalog.
For this movie to end with them working out their differences and being happy together, would have made this serious,thought provoking movie into a fairytale.
The people who liked this movie simply reviewed a work of fiction, the people who hated it seemed to take it personally. I would actually give this beautiful movie a rating of four but gave it a five to compensate for the unwarrented and misleading comments in some of the negative reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Close to Home . . is . . Close to Reality
Review: Joseph Nobile has done what Filipino directors have continually failed to do -- show the quiet desperation underlying daily life so many Filipino families. You will gain respect for our sense of family, sincerity, basic honesty and morality but naivety concerning finance and life in the USA.

You will certainly gain some insights to some of the issues that challenge a successful marriage to a foreigner. I do not want to give away the story or plot twists . . but, if I was not already happily married to a sweet, kind, honorable American, I would want to marry the film's character "Uncle Ralph."

The background scenery of the Philippine countryside and scenes involving festivals, typical work places, common people neighborhoods, farm life, upscale homes, transportation, family events, and even the bar scenes make the DVD well worth the purchase price.

You with both laugh and cry during the two-hour viewing of this well filmed movie that has won awards around the World. It is so good that even Jean, the famous Filipina Cupid who has help so many of us find happiness, recommends it.

I do caution you about the use of foul language of several of the New York characters but then in many, many ways this film is close to reality!



Rating:
Summary: A lousy movie
Review: Saw this with my buddy. He told me about a couple of reviews out here praising it to the sky. The only people who could like this film are either homesick Philippinos (for the scenes back home in the first half) or a shill who works for the DVD's distribution company. Notice the last review, trying to pretend the movie is good fiction. It stinks. It has zero entertainment value. You'd enjoy a visit to the dentist more. And whatever art-house pretensions shills may try to give it, it lacks. The main Philippino characters are good in this movie's terms of Philippino clan morality and have nothing to learn, so they display zero character development. On the other hand the American loser is not speaking with his family, so he deserves to be humiliated. At length. This includes things like "sizing him up," as when one Philippino asks the other, "how big is his ####?" You're supposed to sit through all his degradation to learn that a dirt-poor slob with everything stacked against him can't buy happiness? How "thought provoking." Who would've known? To echo an earlier review, why do I have to give this movie even one star?

Rating:
Summary: A Real Downer
Review: This film must have been written and directed by a Filipino. The parts in the first half set in the Philippines were beautifully photographed and interesting. The 2nd half is ridiculously melodramatic. If you enjoy identifying with a main character who deals with his problems by drinking and consorting with prostitutes, this movie is for you. And the resolution is completely unsatisfying. The filmmakers think it addresses each character's true needs, it doesn't. It's more a Filipino fantasy based on a lack of understanding of immigration laws in the US. The girl would not be allowed to come to the US if the guy had not already met her in person. She and a cousin evidently came to the US on fiancé visas (all this is glossed over in the movie). With this type of visa they, and everyone else, understands they're here to get married within 90 days to their fiancé and ONLY to their fiancé. If they split on their fiancées, someone should just pick up the phone and call the proper authorities. Because they will be deported. Period.

The movie raises valid issues about inter-cultural "mail order" romances. For example, the guy was looking abroad for family to avoid dealing with his actual family. However, the movie strikes me as a Filipino fantasy. The girl can have what she and the filmmakers really want - the ability for her to live in the US and make money to send home without having to marry an American. Glossed over with the immigration laws is the fact that the supposedly innocent Filipina has in fact defrauded her fiancé. She came here with an understanding and violated it. The terrible economic plight in the Philippines does, in fact, drive many Filipinas to marry abroad. This must be a real source of frustration for Filipinos. So, here we get some wish fulfillment from their perspective: The oh-so-virtuous girl gets access to the US and its money without having to actually give herself away in marriage. I doubt Filipinas who marry abroad in reality are like the girl in this movie. I think they also seek to go abroad because they have the idea that Western husbands are superior to what they can get at home. More faithful, caring, etc. Not just more money. But having something like that in the movie would interfere with its Filipino fantasy.

In summary, the first part is interesting but the movie as a whole is just a big downer.

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To address Mr. Lopez's subsequent review and his cavalier attitude towards our immigration laws, dealing with the BICS (formerly INS) with "mail order brides" is not the walk in the park he thinks. The girl must go through a tough interview at the American embassy and there must be proof the couple actually know about each other and have actually met. The 2 in the movie never even talked on a telephone. And who knows what they actually wrote in their letters. This is all glossed over YET their expectations are crucial to the setup of the story.

If the director is in fact an American he nevertheless is ignorant of his own country's laws and he markets his films to the Philippines.

As for blaming the problems on the girl, please show me where I (or DGREEN for that matter) have done that. The claim being made by me is that this supposedly honorable girl stiffed her fiancé, and the agreement she made to get into the country, as soon as she found a better opportunity. The money problem was addressed but she just bailed out anyway. And unlike a citizen, that's not her option. "Circumstances after her arrival lead her to rethink her plan" is a classy way to say as soon as she found something more convenient she reneged, defrauding the guy and this country. Oh but I forget, the cavalier approach to laws and promises is just fine when you're the one doing the defrauding. ... And when everyone here adopts that approach, our women will be emigrating overseas for a better life. Because we will have killed the golden goose and this country will also be too corrupt to have a workable economy.

A likely coda to the ending is the guy's cousin picks up a phone and calls BICS ... and her career in this country is history... It's not like she can't be found (unlike other illegals who skip out on their visas). She's at her cousin's restaurant. Which will likely mean adios for the cousin, too.

I agree with all the points in the reviews of Mr. Lopez and DGreen about the dysfunctional guy. He learns a lot and is certainly to be pitied. The girl on the other hand learns to adopt his approach to life and responsibility: Skip out. And she falls in with her amoral cousin. For her, that's not too hopeful. It's a downer.


Rating:
Summary: A Horrible Movie
Review: What a malicious, vicious movie. It revels in crushing and demeaning some poor, lonely misfit who reaches out for love in the only way he knows how. The filmmakers take sadistic joy in endlessly drawing out this character's downfall. I kept watching till the end thinking things would turn around. They never did. I can't recall when I hated a movie so much. What is the point of this movie and watching some poor character endlessly lose? Do yourself a favor and save your money and your time for something that won't anger you. This movie made me so angry I was compelled to write this review. Why do I even have to give this movie one star?