From the very beginning, filmmaker Cardoso sets a terrific tone, combining spirited characters with a realistic view of multi-cultural L.A. Ferrera and Ontiveros play their characters perfectly--funny and strong, and mercifully not the usual movie versions of the feuding mother and daughter. These are two women who don't understand each other ... and never will. The script cuts through this relationship brilliantly and with serious insight; no doubt cowriter Lopez was drawing on her own life when she wrote the play the film is based on. But even better is the way the characters hold us completely. This is a serious crowd-pleaser, thoroughly engaging and entertaining, frequently very funny in a real-life sort of way. We see ourselves on screen from all sorts of angles--Ana's confusion, her mother's stubbornness, the sister's helplessness, the grandfather's (De Alba) rebelliousness. It's simply a terrific little film that says quite a lot, actually, without ever being obvious about it.