First Look: Eva Mendes in ‘Girl in Progress’

This weekend we went to the movies.  It had been months, maybe even over a year since the last time we actually paid “good money” – ¿apoco no ta caro? – to see a film at an actual movie theater.  Instead, like so many others, we have grown accustomed to lining up at Redbox dispensers wherever we find them or browsing through movies online on websites like Netflix.  This time, though, we wanted to see what all the buzz behind the Hunger Games was all about, having never read any of the books.  As you’ve probably heard somebody you know say by now “it certainly did not disappoint.”

Ni nos arrepentimos de haber ido… and that says a lot!

What really caught my attention, however, was not how entertaining the Hunger Games was, which it really was, but how interesting this trailer for the new movie Girl in Progress looked:

It’s directed by Patricia Riggen – who also directed one of my favorite movies in recent times, Under the same moon with Kate del Castillo – and stars Eva Mendes, Patricia Arquette, Eugenio Derbez, and Cierra Ramirez.

Here’s a little bit more about the film: Grace (Mendes) is a single mom.  She is too busy juggling work, bills, and the very married Dr. Hartford (Matthew Modine), to give her daughter, Ansiedad (Ramirez) – love that name – the attention she desperately needs.  When Ansiedad’s English teacher, Ms. Armstrong (Patricia Arquette), introduces her students to classic coming-of-age stories, Ansiedad is inspired to skip adolescence and jump-start her life without mom.  While Grace becomes preoccupied with the increasing affections of her co-worker (Eugenio Derbez), Ansiedad enlists the help of her loyal friend, Tavita (Raini Rodriguez), to plot her shortcut to “adulthood”.  But as her misguided plan unravels, Ansiedad and Grace must learn that sometimes growing-up means acting your age.

I think we’re sold.  This may be the next movie we see at the movies!

Girl in Progress hits theaters on Friday, May 11, 2012.