Like Costa Gavras, director Ken Loach thinks that cinema is a powerful instrument for noble causes - political as well as social - rather than pure entertainment. "Bread and Roses" is a story about a group of L.A. janitors trying to unionize, while two of them, the Mexican sisters Maya and Rosa, end up following completely different paths. Loach's conflict between capital and labor may seem a bit schematic or didactic, but reality is not much more complex. In fact, "Bread and Roses" avoids two easy and simplistic solutions: to divert the labor-oriented plot to a love story between Maya and Sam (the witty union organizer), and to give us an unlikely but comforting happy end. The bittersweet finale fits perfectly. Also good is Rosa's monologue on how she managed to survive in the U.S., though the most magnetic character is Maya's, with her humorous energy, her smart but well intentioned tricks, her very personal but undeniably warmhearted ethics. Not a brilliant movie, but a good one (7/10).
Review of Bread and Roses
