Don't make the mistake of dismissing "On the Seventh Day" (⋆⋆⋆ not rated; in English and Spanish) as a sports movie.
Yes, the Sunday afternoon soccer league that is the highlight of the week for a group of Mexican immigrants living in New York City is central to the story. And, yes, there's a clichéd "big game" on the horizon for the protagonists. But that's not what this ultimately is about.
Written and directed by Jim McKay, who has spent the past decade working in TV (where his credits include "Breaking Bad" and "The Good Wife"), the movie conveys the sense of a polyglot neighborhood where multiculturalism is lived, not theorized about.
The actors — led by nonprofessional Fernando Cardona, a performer with a natural dignity whose character is the best player on the team and its most conflicted — give face to the faceless, reminding us gently but firmly that these are people just like us.
This drama deftly captures the power of community and the purposeful determination of the immigrants to create better lives for their families. Playing at St. Anthony Main.
Michael Turan, Los Angeles Times
