A Million to Juan Reviews

Family entertainment in a most traditional sense, and a film sympathetic to the plight of Mexican immigrants, A MILLION TO JUAN is the kind of movie they don't make anymore. Paul Rodriguez directed and stars in this fable about a poor man who learns that the true measure of his worth isn't the size of his bank account. Rodriguez plays Juan Lopez, an illegal immigrant and widower living in East LA. All Juan wants is the opportunity to work and provide his son, Alejandro (Jonathan Hernandez), with a better life. Pretty Olivia (Polly Draper) from INS is trying to get Juan a green card, but things don't look promising. One day, when Juan is out on the street selling oranges, an "angel" (Edward James Olmos) gives Juan a check for a million dollars. It's his to cash, but it comes with a letter explaining that if he holds onto the check for 30 days and returns it, he will receive a greater gift. Juan can sure use the money, but he soon discovers the check itself is collateral for unlimited credit. He goes shopping on Rodeo Drive and gets a Mercedes. At a Beverly Hills party, a banker (Larry Linville) offers Juan a loan to start a business. Juan, however, thinks only about Olivia, with whom he's fallen in love. At Alejandro's urging, Juan proposes to Olivia, but she turns him down. She already has a boyfriend, Jeff (David Rasche), but he's a racist jerk. Soon after, Alejandro's best friend Patricia (Leslie Danon) dies in her unheated apartment, and Juan realizes his "riches" have gotten him some fancy clothes, but haven't really been good for anything. After 30 days he gladly returns the check that's brought him heartache. Right after that, Olivia returns to Juan, and they go to discover his gift. It's a restaurant that Juan, his bride, and all their friends fix up. The film concludes with Juan employing his friends, and living happily ever after. Family-oriented films usually aim at the common denominator--the kiddie audience--and aim low. If all A MILLION TO JUAN had to offer were the basic premise, taken from Mark Twain's "The Million Pound Bank Note," and the simplistic romance, it could have been a John Hughes movie (though not with that title). But instead of slick production values, the film offers authenticity. And since too often in movies that "promote family values," Latinos are presented as a threat (the drug dealer or the hyena), a movie that turns stereotypes on their ears deserves to be sought out. A popular stand-up comedian, but one pigeonholed by his ethnicity, Paul Rodriguez has tried for years to "go straight(er)" as an actor with little success. Finally deciding to make his own movie, Rodriguez used his friendships to gather an impressive cast of Hispanic actors, and got notables like Olmos, Cheech Marin, and Ruben Blades to make cameos, despite the film's shoestring budget. In the resulting labor of love, Hispanic culture--the art, language, food, religious faith, and music--is presented and extolled. And instead of just a fairy-tale vision of romantic love, the denouement celebrates the spirit of the oft maligned Mexican-American community.