Mira Nair's take on comedy is quite impressive. The director is known for her more intense and dramatic films but here she proves that she can direct a comedy. Though 'The Perez Family' isn't without its share of flaws, it is overall a funny movie with loads of laugh-out-loud moments. The film is about a group of Cuban immigrants who move to the states, one of them is in search of freedom and another in search of his family whom he hasn't seen for 20 years. While the film is essentially a comedy, Nair does tackle some issues that represent the darkness of an immigrant's life.The score is energetic and the cinematography is vivacious. The pace tends to drag in some places and near the end becomes a tad too intense. Perhaps Nair could have balanced it off by including more comic punches. The dialogues are wonderful, especially the ones between Tomei and Molina.Marisa Tomei has never looked hotter. She is both sensual and hilarious and very convincing as a Cuban wild flower. She was also excellent in the more intense scenes. Angelica Huston too displays a sophisticated sensuality and shows that she too can be funny on screen. Alfred Molina is good but not as effective as his leading ladies. Chazz Palminteri is charming. The late Celia Cruz makes a pleasantly awkward appearance.'The Perez Family' is quite a charming and funny romantic comedy that gives us a glimpse of the hardships of immigrant life but also lots to laugh about. Would like to see Nair make more comedy.

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.

Alfred Molina and Marisa Tomei head up the cast of this pleasant romantic comedy about a former political prisoner and a former sugar cane farmer who leave Cuba for the United States in 1980 on what I presume to be the famous Marielle Boat Lift that brought Cuban exiles to the states (although the boat looks much smaller than it did in 'Before Night Falls'). Having the same last name, the man and the bouyant young woman pose as husband and wife (and later members of an extended Perez family) in order to gain a sponsor who will give them a place to stay and some kind of work.But, Juan (Molina) is expecting to be reunited with his wife (Angelica Houston) and grown daughter (Trini Alvarado). His traitor brother-in-law, who was responsible for the twenty years he spent in that dreadful prison, comes to the dock looking for Juan, but is told by the guard that Juan and his wife already passed through. So, Angel (the brother-in-law) is under the assumption that Juan remarried and broke his sister's heart, and now he tells his sister to forget about him. Juan, in the meantime, has no idea about the misunderstanding, but longs to be reunited with his family.However, along the way, Juan and Dorita (Marisa Tomei in a fantastic performance) build a friendship, and eventually, fall in love for each other. And his wife (Houston) similarly finds a relationship with a charming cop (Chez Palminterri). Juan and his wife, after so many years apart and finding satisfaction and closeness in relationship, they find it hard to rekindle what they once had. It isn't that they're being disloyal to each other. Despite being married, they had been away from each for more than twenty years and could not just pick up where they left off.It is a pleasant romantic comedy and has some very funny moments as well as an excellent cast, particularly Marisa Tomei, who pretty much drives the whole movie as the young Cuban female who tries to create a close family (with others similarly named Perez) and searching out something like an "American Dream."

Well, most have summed up the story and acting pretty well, but I thought this was a beautiful film about indominable human spirit. As Tomei's character states in the beginning of the film, "I am like Cuba: always subjugated, but never conquered" (paraphrased).That, for me, was the theme of the film throughout. Tomei was wonderful, but I loved the subtle work from Molina and Huston.