Spoken Word

This low budget indie deals with a familiar issue in film: a dying parent is a catalyst for an adult child to return home and hopefully reconcile. The main character Cruz Montoya (Kuno Becker) is a slam poet working in San Francisco. He has had some fame, and is touring the country with his poetry and heading a class for teens. He's also dating a like-minded painter, Shea. When Cruz gets a call from his sister-in-law in New Mexico, she tells him his father has been ill and thinks it is a good time for him to return home.


We get some hints of past alcohol abuse from Cruz that he's still trying to combat, and he also suffers from bipolarity, so his drug treatment and alcohol don't mix. He leaves his girlfriend abruptly and when he arrives home, finds his dad still living alone and refusing much help from others. Cruz's brother, Ramon, a family man, is slightly estranged from his father, as Ramon sold some land he inherited instead of keeping it in the family. Despite Cruz having been away several years, he gets better treatment from Cruz Sr. (Ruben Blades) than Ramon, even with Ramon's wife's best efforts at keeping the family together during Thanksgiving dinner.

Cruz tries to get his father to continue treatment but Sr. is stubborn and since his illness is terminal, doesn't see much of a point. Cruz also needs to make a living so he gets back into some old bad habits and works at a club run by Emilio (Miguel Sandoval), who has some shady practices and who is also the man Ramon sold the land to. As time passes it becomes Christmas and Cruz continues to ignore his girlfriend's worried calls for information about the situation. As he tries to keep to his familial obligations and his work responsibilities, he deals with the stress by becoming somewhat self-destructive, getting back into alcohol and hard drugs.

I think this film would have benefitted by a stronger lead actor and more original script. Throughout most of the film, Becker seemed like he was reciting lines without digging deeply into the emotion or thought process of the character, and it was only nearer the end of the film--where he experienced more anger and grief--were there signs of a better actor lurking beneath. There were times when he could see his father suffering but it seemed his first thought was to how to make a poem out of it instead of helping his dad. Ruben Blades did a noteworthy job as Cruz Sr., a physically tired as well as emotionally spent man. Through his character's dialogue we get hints of how Cruz became a poet as well as a reason contributing to his substance abuse. Miguel Sandoval played a stereotypical character, someone who only used people to benefit himself, he was a typical bad guy. The confrontation that Cruz has with him at the end felt too rushed and contrived; Sandoval's character has been key to the family for many years, but his relationship with Cruz was not embedded with enough importance.

Overall the plot and story is not new, and you can see the arcs of the various character going where they should, there really are no surprises. Cruz's character is only explained through his relationships, each having various levels of importance to his life. The two actresses who played the sister in law and the girlfriend were good in their small roles. I give credit for casting authentic Hispanics who are not just immigrants or gangsters or the typical types we often see (even though there is Emilio in the story). There is also a teen who Cruz was mentoring who found it difficult to put his ideas into words, he acted well in a poetry reading at the end (bringing Cruz's story full circle), and I also liked the sentiment of his poem.