Maybe you're pregnant!  You're a heap of blubbering sobs.... ;-)

Anyway, is this movie based on a non-fiction book by journalist?  I heard a woman interviewed on Radio Times on WHYY last year who wrote a book about these children and it was heart-wrenching.

Ugh.

are particularly difficult for me to watch. I don't think I will ever be able to watch "Sophie's Choice" again, although I saw it several times before I was a parent.

"Life is Beautiful" left me a in a blubbering puddle in the aisle of the theater. My kids were toddlers, I think, at the time.

This movie sounds really good but I guess I won't know if it has a tragic ending unless I see it. So, not sure if I am up for it.

just the review has me in tears.

And I teared up there!  I'm not sure I could handle the movie.  And that's definitely an attitude I've developed since becoming a parent.  I also think for me personally, any mother-son thing hits me twice as hard.  I can't bear to think of my sweet little boy out there on his own.

I saw "Sophie's Choice" many years ago, and now I've got that central scene in my mind.  I think I'll need to go do something happy.

Wow.  I can't even imagine.

I laugh hard, play hard, eat hard, and cry hard. I can't deal with emotional movies, but especially when the plot has anything to do with a child. I have to prepare myself and the timeing has to be right; I can't be menstrual, that's for sure.

My job exposes me to many moms/dads that live hear and have children in their home country. Sadly, I also see families who get seperated by INS.

My mom came here (legally) in the late 70's from Mexico. She left us with my Abuelita and would visit us once a year. She came for my sister and I when I was 7 (she left when I was 1); I remember being amazed because the sidewalk sparkled.

Great review Erika, I can't wait to see the film.

at parent themes. I mean, I bawled my eyes out at the end of the last Harry Potter!

Last real tear-jerker movie - Rabbit Proof Fence, based on a true story of three Aboriginal girls who were taken from their mothers (part of the Stolen Generation) and put in an institutionalised orphanage. The oldest one runs away with the other two and attempts to find their family by walking across outback Australia following a fence. I was just a mess.

and I can't stop thinking about it. It was very difficult to watch, as Cristian is the same age as this boy in the movie was that crossed the border (in Texas), and traveled from Texas to California to find his mother.

Along the way, he meets his father in Tucson. He had recently learned of his existance and asked for his help. At one point, his "father" asked how long his mother had been "en el otro lado" (on the other side), at which point Carlitos said, "four years". The "father" expressed his disappointment and said that four years was too long to be away from her son. When Carlitos responded with "Yes, but it's not as long as you..." I CHEERED!!

I took my mother, who lived in Los Angeles (by herself), while my father and older brother and sisters lived in Tijuana. She cleaned houses and ironed for other people in order to send money back home. This movie touched me on so many different levels. I felt it was true to life regarding the struggles that a lot of immigrants go through in order to provide a better life for their families. When Carlitos asked why his mother was "on the other side" without him, he was told "Don't you think she would rather be with you? Do you think anybody wants THIS life?" Of course, he was referring to running from "la migra" (INS), doing hard labor for pennies, working under unsafe conditions at "la pisca" (field work), just to be able to provide for your family. There was a lot to think about.

At one point during the movie, I listened to the lyrics of a song playing in the background...it was pretty interesting. It's about the different in treatment between "Superman", and "un mojado" (a wet back or Mexican), being that they're BOTH illegal...interesting.

Superman's An Illegal

(Spoken) It's a bird!
It's a plane!
No, man, it's a wetback!
(Sung)
He came from the sky tucked in a spaceship.
From Krypton to Earth was such a long trip.
We've one thing in common: we managed to skip
Requesting American citizenship.
You know there are laws about immigration
and he simply lacks his documentation.
So how can he work as a newspaper man?
By rights he should be locked up in the can.
But he's blue-eyed, tall and muy lovey-dovey;
I'm dark-skinned, short and a little bit chubby.
He got in for free but I had to pay.
Coyotes ain't cheap but they sure know the way.
Ain't impersonating a cop still a crime?
As far as the draft, he never had time.
Don't have no license to fly like a rocket!
No social security card in his pocket.
The man's got to go and this ain't a joke.
He's stealing a job from American folk.
Or let Lady Liberty send out the word;
Aliens here have to fly like a bird.

Touché!!