This could have been your typical poor boys work hard and become famous type story, fortunately it was so much more. It was about wanting, and fearing, and being obsessed, and being hurt, and taking risks, and finally the eternal theme of father and sons. A father in love with music, with fierce innocent childlike eyes and children who fell in love with their father's dream with innocent adult all knowing eyes. It was about the hardship of poverty, but it was about it's happiness as well. It was about a crazy man, with a crazy dream who could have gone wrong ... and half way did, but also didn't! I was surprised by the minimalist acting, so much was said with the eyes, and it was in the eyes that parents and children communicated their fears, desires, wants, madness, hurt feelings. Big brown crazy childlike eyes. The children were off course, very cute as kids can be, but the adult actors were very much there, and it's to their capacity that does big brown boy eyes not only didn't make them fade away, but played into the more universal theme of the movie! Francisco, the father, is an incredible presence (and what an incredible good actor has portrayed him). That this movie was named after him and not his successful sons is to the credit of an honesty not easy to find in the biopic world. It is in part what made this movie much so much more!
