Absolutely Fantastic

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The acting in this movie is really good.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Some films are beautifully understated in their power and presence and resonate with audiences for years to come, then, there are films like Girl in Progress. The 2012 film by Patricia Riggen was completely contrived in its use of clichés, even though the point of the film was supposed to be to poke holes in clichés. Eva Mendes & Patricia Arquette join with Cierra Ramirez to expose the lengths a child will go to escape a disinterested parent and speed their own maturity and growth. Mother/daughter relationships aren't always the seamless pinnacle of female bonding and connection that we often imagine, as Girl in Progress painfully proves.Grace (Eva Mendes) stars as a self-absorbed spoiled single mother who had a child when she was still very young herself and refused to put her child first until she almost lost her. Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez) is a young girl who is dragged around from city to city on her mother's whim unable to settle down and root herself in any one place. To make matters worse, Ansiedad, a full-time high school student is also the sole caretaker of the home she shares with her mother. The cook, the maid, and her mother's personal assistant, Ansiedad is often left to her own devices at nights when her mother leaves to pursue her many male suitors. One day, in English class, Ansiedad is inspired to write her own coming-of-age story. She writes a fool-proof plan that will result in her inevitable maturity and enough life resources to leave her absent mother. Her only ally, her English teacher Ms. Armstrong (Patricia Arquette) attempts to help her along the way, as much as a teacher can and eventually reaches the child to help her realize that experiencing a series of events in a prescribed order will not automatically bring about maturity. Along this journey, when she finds the time, Grace attempts to repair the damage done to her and her daughter's relationship.This film had a very Lifetime network feel to it, taking an hour and a half to illustrate the very obvious points that you cannot plan out your life, and no one really knows that they're doing while on earth. Taking so much time to demean the use of clichés while simultaneously using them was a filmmaking decision that fell flat. Skip this journey of mother/daughter bonding, you're not missing anything.

A young and cute teen girl wants to become a woman and will do anything to achieve it even betray her best friend who is unattractive. She wants to stay with the cool girl in her high-school but this does not come for free and she must provide alcohol for them and the party or give them hall-passes. in the mean time her mother struggles at her workplace and face the stress that she has every day being a waitress at a restaurant with impatient and demanding customers. She also has a secret adventure with the man for witch she works as a maid.An medium drama I would say, the film is quite frustrating at one time and becomes modest but I manage to see it without interruptions. It is good for a drama but for the story is just ordinary, I have seen this kind mother-daughter relationship in other movies. So view it if you want to fill your time in one afternoon specially if it rains outside, then the movie becomes more bearable.

For those who remember Cher and Winona Ryder in Mermaids and liked it, this is an updated Hispanic irresponsible mother and cry for help daughter comedy. There are some laugh out loud moments. The drama and comedy don't blend that smoothly as hoped but overall it's a cute story.The performances are good. Eva is funny and touching. She is a great comedienne and very convincing in the more serious moments. It's nice to see her in a real latina role speaking Spanish. She is believable showing blue collar struggles - much more than Jennifer Lopez.Strange casting of Matthew Modine as the married cad who romances Eva's character. He is usually the good guy so it's a bit strange to see him in the role.Overall it isn't has polished as Mermaids but it's worth a watch.

I watched this movie last night and thought it was a great movie.The movie starts off slow and a bit quirky. At times it even feels like it is trying to hard to be something its not. Then somewhere in the middle, it drops the quirky and the story develops. I became invested and began to care for the characters. The acting was good. Both main actresses do a great job in their roles as mother and daughter. As an educator myself, I see these types of mothers and daughters almost every school year. It was nice seeing their story be told and also one from Latin roots. I would recommend this movie because at the end of it all, you leave the movie with some thoughts and emotions tied to the characters. Good film.