Inspired by a true story, City of Dreams chronicles the journey of a Mexican boy whose dreams of becoming a soccer star are shattered when he’s smuggled across the border and sold to a sweatshop in downtown Los Angeles.
The centerpiece of writer-director Mohit Ramchandani’s “City of Dreams” is a chase sequence, filmed as if it’s been captured in a single take, during which the young boy at the center of the story escapes his captivity and attempts to find shelter with the authorities. It’s vividly realized, obviously urgent, and hugely ambitious, and it also happens to underscore the profoundly troubling issue with this movie, which allegedly attempts to shed some light on working conditions in the manufacturing plants of major corporations. Just as this sequence is about to get going, we receive that bit of information about the corporate structure laid on top of the indentured servants at the bottom of the proverbial food chain. It’s neither revelatory nor insightful here.
The director, it seems, has taken – consciously or not – an adage from the late Roger Ebert a little too seriously for comfort: that a movie is not about what it’s about but about how. Like anything else in film, an attitude like this can be twisted in the wrong direction – toward exploitation, in which this film too often barters and away from any sense of compassion. That’s what is so frustrating about the experience of watching that chase sequence. We acknowledge that it’s a cathartic outcome for Jesús (Ari Lopez) and are expected to feel that catharsis right alongside him, simply because of his situation and for no other reason.
What the film and Ramchandani fail to understand is that this is not how filmmaking works, nor is it automatically how an audience will respond to such filmmaking (not a blanket statement, of course, because of exceptions to the rule). A directorial vision can bring a lot to a movie, and to whatever degree the filmmaker stumbles into something worth saying about the sweatshop culture within the corporate world, he does get at something worth discussing through his implementation of this style. His other priority, though, appears to be a desire to submerge us in the hopelessness of Jesús’ situation. In trying to do both, the director fails both approaches.
If the chase sequence is vividly realized all in a single take, then the bits of corporal punishment that eventually just become child abuse are all captured with slow-motion photography that seeks to underline what is already difficult to watch. Ramchandani also utilizes a lot of first-person perspectives, giving us the impression of Jesús, his “employers,” and his “co-workers,” peering at us through the veil of the camera – perhaps to tell us of our complicity in this system. However, it doesn’t really matter in the long run. As with the one-take chase, it’s just an empty style to increase our discomfort. This is a movie that refuses to trust the urgency of its own story.
Even with its apparent misgivings, that story should be enough to humble us without all the showy filmmaking tricks employed by its director. Jesús is lured into the sweatshop with the promise of tickets to a prestigious sporting event and, eventually, enough wealth to buy all the sports tickets he might want. That quickly becomes a pipe dream once he arrives at the sweatshop, where “El Jefe” (Alfredo Castro) commands with his mere presence, and his underling Cesar (Andrés Delgado) carries out the often-brutal punishment. Whether or not there was a sensitive way of telling a story like this is irrelevant since the filmmakers have definitely not stumbled upon one here.
It’s eventually something of a backdrop, anyway, for the police investigation unfolding outside the compound, where a couple of police officers (an irascible veteran cop played by Jason Patric and his more idealistic rookie partner played by Adina Eady) are closing in on the sweatshop and its inhabitants. There are a couple of solid performances and hints at an outside world where humor and lightness are a thing. “City of Dreams” is far more interested in keeping us in the darkness of the compound, though, giving us a tour of the entire place with Jesús as our unwitting guide. The result is a sad drama that tries vainly to inspire.
In Theaters Friday, August 30th
