Somewhere Out There, the maudlin theme song to Disney’s animated An American Tail, is audio torture. It’s not just Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram’s warbling. It’s the heavy-handed longing – important to the song – that is betrayed by bogus lyrics like “And even though I know how very far apart we are/It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star.”
Patricia Riggen’s Under the Same Moon takes the song’s phony concept even further. It swipes the faux sentimentality of Somewhere Out There and tapes it to the USA’s very real border-crossing dilemma. It pretends to address a serious issue but ends up degrading an entire race.
The sad sacks sleeping under Riggen’s moon are nine-year-old Carlos (Adrian Alonso) and his beloved mother, Rosario (Kate del Castillo). She’s an illegal immigrant cleaning houses in Los Angeles. He’s a virtual orphan in Mexico caring for a sickly grandmother and fending off his greedy uncle. When granny kicks the bucket, Carlos finally sets out to cross the border and join mom in the City of Angels.
The child’s obstacles amount to a string of poorly written, obvious clichés that litter the road many travel from Mexico City to the southern United States. Screenwriter Ligiah Villalobos assails Carlos with broadly drawn, grotesque (and, of course, non-Mexican) villains. Later she recruits Ugly Betty star America Ferrera for a ham-fisted confrontation at a border checkpoint. Why is it people smuggling immigrants into the States are always told they can proceed, only to be stopped seconds before crossing safely for a broken taillight or an expired registration?
Under the Same Moon tells a glossy version of immigration, where surly (but kindhearted) vagabonds shepherd scared children to their mother’s waiting arms. It is so safe it’s dull, so predictable it’s toothless, and so corny it’s insulting.

Sean O’Connell