Much like "Striptease" (Demi Moore's film about a pole artist who must hide her true occupation to retain custody after a messy divorce), "Illegal" is about a mother who turns to running a gambling house in order to be able to afford to raise her children properly from a distance. But there are no clear signals from writers or director as to whether this was an ultimately wise choice, and so the moral message -- let alone the underlying sense of the plot -- remains largely ambiguous on the screen. The main character has a heart of gold, so why must she suffer her partial tragedy?
There is also a rather flawed construction in the execution of the film: The last three or four scenes are perfunctory to the point of denying a proper catharsis with the characters, for whom you wouldn't mind rooting a bit more. One is left with the impression, for instance, that the younger daughter's relationship with the gentleman is nothing more than a piece of good luck. The concluding scene, while perfectly satisfactory in its own way, could have been enhanced with more searching, meaning-of-life-type dialog.
In sum, a promising story, but too summarily dispatched.