The weight of "I Carry You With Me" comes from its real life origin story.
It tells the tale of Ivan Garcia and Gerardo Zabaleta, two Mexican men who fall in love and find themselves in unwelcome conditions, both from a lifestyle and socioeconomic viewpoint. So they flee to the U.S. as undocumented, a decision that seals their fate from ever returning to their home country: never again will they visit their family, their birthplace, or they risk not being able to come back to their lives in New York. It's an example where they really can't ever go home again.
Director Heidi Ewing, the Oscar nominee who co-directed "Jesus Camp," tells this intimate tale of her two friends from a unique point of view, mixing narrative footage of Ivan and Gerardo as youths, switching in the film's final act to documentary footage of their real life counterparts. It's a daring gambit that pays off in the depth of feeling on Ivan and Gerardo's faces. Most films would settle for a photograph of the real life subjects as the end credits begin to roll. Ewing's film lets you live with them, feel them, breathe them.
In the flashback scenes, Armando Espitia plays Ivan and Christian Vazquez is Gerardo, who face various forms of discrimination for their sexual orientation. Ivan has a child from a previous relationship that complicates his journey to America and continues to tug at his heart after he makes it across. He's never truly whole.
Ewing's storytelling is solemn and impactful, and is deepened by the sudden arrival of reality in act three. "I Carry You With Me" makes an impact that floors you, picks you up and then stays with you long after it ends.
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'I CARRY YOU WITH ME'
Grade: B+
Rated: R (for language and brief nudity)
Running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Playing: Now in theaters
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