USAToday
Claudia Puig
The glacial pace of How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer is both its best and worst asset.
This story of three generations of Latinas and how they deal with romance and sexual desire benefits on one hand from the languid storytelling pace, particular given the setting: a dusty little Arizona town where everyone knows everyone else's business. There are several lovely shots and a poetic quality to the unhurried style of filmmaking.
But the slowness also is maddening. Some events take too long to unspool, with lingering close-ups becoming listless and adding to the tedium.
Also, a theatrical device involving a quartet of old men sitting on a bus-stop bench reminiscing about cars and women doesn't always match the tone of the generational saga.
Still, the performances, particularly those of Elizabeth Peña and America Ferrera as mother and daughter, are quite affecting. The character of their elderly mother (Lucy Gallardo) is poignant. The idea of actors making brave choices is a terrible cliché, but Gallardo is courageous indeed, particularly in a bathtub scene and also in the throes of passion with a man who is close to her age.
The film is sensitively told and appealingly bittersweet, though the story at times meanders and loses its way.
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