La Mission
Director: Peter Bratt
Country: USA
Release: 2009
Che is a tough guy, ex-con, widower and reformed alcoholic who works and lives in the Mission District of San Francisco. He is also a good friend, good worker, good neighbor, and devoted father to his son and best friend, Jesse. Jesse is an attractive, affable good student, who (unknown to his father) just happens to be secretly gay. When Che finds out the boy’s secret, there is a physical confrontation that spills out into the street with Che disowning his son – and soon the whole neighborhood and all of Jesse’s classmates know his secret. Eventually father and son attempt to work it out, but mostly by avoiding each other and avoiding the subject. Their own version of don’t ask/ don’t tell seems to be working, but just as things start to get back to something that resembles normal, the unavoidable subject comes up and pushes them further apart. Unable or unwilling to try any more, Jesse moves out and father and son remain estranged. Ultimately something has to give as Che’s inability to come to terms with his son’s gayness threatens to destroy everything good in his life. The father is a major low-rider, and there is an affectionate portrayal of low-riders and interesting insights into that culture. A little unrealistic to me, everybody (except Che) in that supposedly macho world seems just a little too accepting and open-minded. In fact everyone is almost unbelievably cool about the issue, except for a few neighborhood thugs – who have had confrontations with Che, and even they seem to want to use the son’s homosexuality more against the father than the gay kid himself. But just maybe the movie is trying to point out that you do not necessarily have to be a macho ass to have problems with your child’s gayness. Maybe Che’s disappointment is also mixed with equal parts of fear for his son’s safety and possible limitations this might have on the son’s bright potential. Of course it does not, and should not, have anything to do with anything about Jesse – except for his private sexual preference. But try telling that to Che, and try telling that to society sometimes. You have to watch the movie to find out if the two ever work through their problems and reconcile. “La Mission” is a film about complicated emotional issues and how two people can find it so damn difficult to do just the one simple thing of loving each other.
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