''A Beautiful Life'' is a 2008 American drama film directed by

Alejandro Chomski Alejandro Chomski (27 November 1968 – 5 November 2022) was an Argentine film director and screenwriter. As of early 2020, he has directed 16 films with another film in post-production and one announced production. His film '' Hoy y mañana'' w ...

and starring

Jesse Garcia Jesse García (born December 14, 1982) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in ''Quinceañera'' and '' Flamin' Hot'' for which he won Imagen Awards Best Actor. Career Garcia starred in the award-winning film ''Quinceañera'', writt ...

and

Angela Sarafyan Angela Sarafyan (), sometimes credited as Angela Sarafian, is an American actress. She has appeared as a guest star in several television series and has acted in the feature films: '' Kabluey'' (2007), '' On the Doll'' (2007), '' A Beautiful Life ...

. It was released by New Films International, adapted from the play ''Jersey City'' by Wendy Hammond. The film received a 0% score on the review aggregator site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

Plot

A young woman, Maggie (

), is on the run from her abusive father. David (

) is an

illegal immigrant Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...

working as a dishwasher while searching for his mother in Los Angeles. The two meet and fall in love.

Cast

as Maggie *

as David *

Bai Ling Bai Ling (, born October 10, 1966) is a Chinese American actress and musician. After acting in numerous Chinese productions, she played small roles in American films such as '' The Crow'' (1994) and '' Nixon'' (1995) before starring as the femal ...

as Esther *

Meltem Cumbul Meltem Cumbul (born 5 November 1969) is a Turkish people, Turkish actress and acting teacher. Biography Her family is of Circassian descent. Her aunt is Turkish folk music singer. Currently, Meltem Cumbul is teaching the acting method of Eri ...

as Antanas *

Debi Mazar Debi Mazar Corcos (; born August 13, 1964) is an American actress and television personality. She began her career with supporting roles in '' Goodfellas'' (1990), '' Little Man Tate'' (1991), '' Singles'' (1992), and '' Batman Forever'' (1995), ...

as Susan *

Rena Owen Maria Makarena Owen (born 22 July 1962), known professionally as Rena Owen, is a New Zealand actress in theatre, television and film. Owen is best known for her leading role as Beth Heke in Lee Tamahori's '' Once Were Warriors'' and as Taun We ...

as Sam *

Jonathan LaPaglia Jonathan LaPaglia (, ; born 31 August 1969) is an Australian actor and television personality. He has hosted Network 10's revival of '' Australian Survivor'' since 2016. As an actor, LaPaglia is known for his roles as Frank B. Parker in the te ...

as Vince *

Dana Delany Dana Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American actress. After appearing in small roles early in her career, Delany received her breakthrough role as Colleen McMurphy on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television drama ''China Beach'' (1 ...

as Anne *

Enrique Castillo Enrique Castillo (Enrique Jimenez Castillo; born December 10, 1949) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He founded Four Brown Hats Entertainment (FBHE) and was a founding member of the Latino Theater Company. Life and career ...

as Don Miguel *

Ronnie Gene Blevins Ronnie Gene Blevins (born June 20, 1977) is an American character actor. He is best known for his role as small-time criminal Willie Russell in the 2013 film '' Joe'', directed by David Gordon Green. Career His TV credits include '' NCIS'', '' ...

as Henry * Walter Perez as Enrico *

Ștefan Bănică Jr. Ștefan Bănică Jr. (; born 18 October 1967) is a Romanian actor, singer, film director, and television presenter. Bănică was born in Bucharest to actor Ștefan Bănică Sr. and journalist Sanda Vlad-Liteanu. He graduated from the Ion Luca C ...

as Jack *

Saadet Aksoy Saadet Işıl Aksoy (; born 29 August 1983) is a Turkish actress, who received critical acclaim with her portrayal of Aska, a red-haired punk trumpet player in Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto's film '' Twice Born'', in which she co-st ...

as Denise * Andreea Marin Banica as Britney *

Tuba Ünsal Tuba Ünsal (born 7 December 1981) is a Turkish actress and model. Biography Tuba Ünsal was born in Denizli on 7 December 1981. Her paternal family, who are of Turkish origin, emigrated from Greece. Other part of her maternal family is Oghu ...

as Sadenaz * Kayla Paige as Lucy * Deborah Calla as Virginia * Gloria Alexandra as Stripper * Royana Black as Cathy * Dan Kelpine as Jim

Release

Although produced in 2008, the film was not released widely in North America until October 2, 2009, and first appeared on DVD on March 1, 2011. This was the second film by New Films International, a long-existing global independent film distribution company based in

Sherman Oaks Sherman Oaks (founded in 1927) is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, California within the San Fernando Valley region. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population densit ...

headed by Nesim Hason, whose new American division was led by Tim Swain. The company describes its focus as "festival-driven, high-quality, cast-driven indie films".

Reception

''A Beautiful Life'' received poor reviews from the twelve sources noted by the Rotten Tomatoes website.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave the film a score of 13 out of 100, summarizing the reviews of the seven critics it measured as "overwhelming dislike". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called it a "laughably clichéd dive into sexual masochism", and ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' saw it as a "misery pile up ... about broken souls and crossed paths destined for the trash heap. Scream, smash, slap, cry, repeat."

Slant Slant can refer to: Bias *Bias or other non- objectivity in journalism, politics, academia or other fields Technical * Slant range, in telecommunications, the line-of-sight distance between two points which are not at the same level * Slant ...

gave it a half-star out of four, saying that "its awfulness

omes Omics is the collective characterization and quantification of entire sets of biological molecules and the investigation of how they translate into the structure, function, and dynamics of an organism or group of organisms. The branches of scie ...

in so many forms that it's hard to single out just one appalling example". ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' felt that it provided "unintentional laughs by the barrel", and predicted that the film would be a

box office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

said that although the film deals with some serious topics, the random nature of characters and controversies made it hard to appreciate them, describing it as "too earnest to be a hoot, and too amateurish to be anything else".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beautiful Life 2008 films 2008 drama films American drama films Films directed by Alejandro Chomski 2000s English-language films 2000s American films