My Family (1995)

My Family Esai Morales, Jimmy Smits (1995, New Line, R, priced for rental) Like any metaphor, The Family is flexible: A hotbed of neuroses and nerves, it can also be a warm source of communal strength. My Family assumes the latter perspective. An epic-minded tale of a Mexican immigrant clan in L.A., director Gregory Nava's American dream stitches together the expected elements — dignified-in-poverty patriarch, rock-of-love matriarch, and a hard-to-control brood growing away from the old ways. Unfortunately, the movie traffics in the overly romantic, a failing made more tolerable by the small screen. But even on video the improbable triumphs and cliched characters (the bad son shot by the cops, the daughter turned nun, the good son who becomes a writer) make this family's history as sepia-toned as its cinematography. B-