tortilla heaven

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Tortilla Heaven

Review by Pam & George O. Singleton

2 Stars

Cast

Directed by Judy Hecht Dumontet. Religious comedy. Rated PG-13 for some nudity and sexual content. Archangel Entertainment. Running time: 94 minutes.

The farcical religious tone of Tortilla Heaven is set at the start of the movie when a resident of the small town, Falfurrias, New Mexico, population 73, climbs to the top of the church tower to ring the bell by hitting it with a rock. The "rooster" has crowed and the town is now awake!

The town is three miles from the highway, in a world where most people passing through need to see a sign pointing the way, if they are to give any thought to stopping. The popular restaurant, Tortilla Heaven, is a hit only with the locals ¾ remember, population 73.

Isidor (Jose Zuniga, of MI III) does not go to church, as his life is the restaurant. One day while making tortillas, he tosses one aside because it just won’t take the right shape. Later he learns that it cooks in the image of Jesus, as if it was engraved on a china plate. Strange as it may seem, this modern day fable is based upon a true story.

Although Isidor tries to keep the special tortilla a secret, word spreads fast and soon he sees a way to make money from this event. Before long people are making the three-mile detour off the highway and business is booming. Things are robust, not just for Isidor but for many others in the town as well.

In comes franchiser/real estate developer Gil Garcia (Miguel Sandoval of Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School) who makes Isidor think he’ll be the next Ray Kroch (a.k.a. McDonald’s).

Soon greed takes over the town and the formerly close knit community is everyone for him/herself. Eventually the spiritual aspect of the film wins out, but not without some significant trials and tribulations.

The cast is excellent, with many characters you come to care about. However, the story has the comic absurdity of Clint Eastwood’s The Gauntlet. There are good laughs here and there but the reality one tries to buy into keeps clashing with humor that too often is not funny. For example, when a young woman is put in jail because of a potentially neglectful mother, it’s not funny. Then there’s the old man that sings so badly that he has you looking for the mute button on a non-existent remote control. On the upside, the nudist woman is a hoot, as are some of the antics of Isidor as he tries to improve the life of both his family and the town he loves.

The serious side of the film came across as sad to me with regard to signing documents one does not understand and breaking long-held friendships for the sake of a dollar. The lack of sophistication depicted would give hillbillies a bad name.

With a cast of Native Americans and Latinos in non ethnic-specific roles, the film has the feel of a Tyler Perry movie (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) with its universal message that is best understood by an African American audience. In this case, we believe that Native Americans and Latinos will like the film better than others might, which is unfortunate.

We’ll give the film the benefit of the doubt because so many top-flight actors have put so much of themselves into it. Clearly they think that something positive is there that needs to be communicated. That said, we feel that changes could have been made to the script that would make the universal message come across more effectively to general audiences without compromising the story for the people whom the film is about.

george@reelmoviecritic.com