Immigrants’ tale hits a dead end

“No Turning Back,” a well-intentioned first film about immigration by Spanish actor and filmmaker Jesus Nebot, packs the sincerity of an after-school special, but with no more depth than those yellow warning signs that one encounters along I-5 depicting the silhouette of a fleeing family.

More a 99-minute public service announcement about the plight of illegal immigrants than a fully formed drama, the film finds itself in a no-win situation not unlike that of its protagonist.

Nebot, who co-wrote and co-directed with Julia Montejo, stars as Pablo, a Honduran man who has illegally immigrated to the U.S. with the hope of providing a better life for his 6-year-old daughter, Christina (Chelsea Rendon), following the death of his pregnant wife in a hurricane.

The Walt Whitman-quoting Pablo, who left behind a poorly paid position as a professor of English literature at a university, finds work in an Oceanside tomato field, allowing his daughter to attend school, learn English and aspire to be Jennifer Lopez when she grows up.

In an instant, however, Pablo’s American dream turns into a nightmare when he accidentally strikes a little girl while driving a borrowed truck. Afraid of being separated from his daughter, he flees with Christina in tow. The fugitives are aided and abetted by a video journalist named Soid (Lindsay Price) who wants to tell their story and professes a distrust of government, corporate America and the mainstream media.

Pablo, Christina and the digital-camera wielding Soid head north to Los Angeles, hoping to eventually reach Canada, but indicative of the film’s wheel-spinning, road-to-nowhere narrative, they get no farther than Venice Beach. Positing a man-without-a-choice moral dilemma melodrama, the filmmakers paint themselves into a corner by setting up a “problem play” scenario -- drawing our attention to a social ill, the plight of illegal immigrants -- without the believable characters or conflicts necessary to make it compelling. It aspires to tragedy without even the possibility of catharsis.

There are no true villains here -- only the stupid and ignorant -- and the obstacles set in front of Pablo are infinitely high, ones that are clear to the audience early on and plainly mark him for martyrdom. Nebot gives an earnest performance, but the character is so saintly as to be a bore. Even when he is driven to commit a robbery to survive, the script excuses the act by having the convenience store’s owner first utter racist comments and later lie about the amount of cash taken.

The film’s other characters are even less fully drawn. Despite her stated position as a seeker of truth, Soid merely serves as a symbol of the exploitive nature of the media and a device to drive the plot, much as Vernee Watson-Johnson’s detective represents an indictment of a biased justice system. The African American cop’s racist view of Latinos is explained away by the fact that her brother -- a law student -- was killed in a drive-by shooting by a Mexican American gang.

Merely ticking off peripheral issues such as the elimination of bilingual education in public schools does nothing to add to the drama or deepen our interest -- it’s the socially conscious equivalent of name-dropping.

The film’s good intentions are further eroded by a series of coincidences and implausibilities that begins piling up almost too quickly to track. The ridiculousness inevitably leads to a “Touched by an Angel” ending that would have Roma Downey and Della Reese flapping their wings in happy approval. The filmmakers simply don’t possess the skills to bring off a drama that can support serious themes, thus trivializing the very concerns they are trying to bring attention to.

*

‘No Turning Back’

MPAA rating: R for language.

Times guidelines: Non-graphic representations of a hit-and-run and a shooting.

Jesus Nebot...Pablo

Chelsea Rendon...Christina

Lindsay Price...Soid

Vernee Watson-Johnson...Det. Bryant

A Zokalo Entertainment production, in association with Cartel, released by Zenpix and Innovation Group. Writer-directors Jesus Nebot, Julia Montejo. Producer Nebot. Executive producers Nebot, Eduardo Campoy. Story by Nebot, Chris Sablan. Cinematographer Ian Fox. Editors Irene Blecua, Andrea Zondler. Costume designer Dujuana Brossman. Music Steven Chesne. Production designer Gail Mosley. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes.

In selected theaters.