América is a young girl of Argentine descent who lives a life of mischief with her aunt and uncle in the United States. Her life drastically changes when her aunt dies and she is sent to live with her grandmother in Argentina, where she has a hard time getting accustomed to the new way of life. The story being told by the director is an interesting one with a lot of potential to impact viewers. However, the movie looses a lot of its value with the lack of good acting, rich dialogue, and an upbeat tempo. The main character becomes sort of exhausting to watch after a while because of the way she acts and how she talks to her friends and family. Moreover, the dialogues between América and her family seemed too simple and raw most times, giving off an uncomfortable feeling for the audience. Lastly, the development of various scenes seemed too slow at times, causing the audience to become bored. The very end however, came about extremely quickly, resolving the plot too abruptly.

After the death of her aunt, young America is sent to Argentina to live with her bitter and controlling grandmother. It is a difficult transition for the trouble teen that has a history of bad-tempered outbursts and shoplifting. She does not respect her grandmother and refuses to obey her. The plot at the beginning progresses very slowly and the acting by the characters in the scenes in the US leaves something to be desired. Once America arrives in Argentina her transition from rebel to young lady takes place extremely slowly and one wonders if it will ever take place. Though her grandmother seems strict at first, the audience quickly takes her side and feels sorry for all of the difficulties she has to go through because of her granddaughter and her stroke. The music in the movie was perfectly suited to the scenes. At first I was disinterested in the movie and wondered if it would be worth finishing but once America begins her journey to becoming mature the movie is really worth watching.

(There are minor spoilers in this review.) This film is an exceptional character study of a displaced American in Argentina, but you really have to get past the first thirty minutes to get to the heart of the movie. The first third of the film, that takes place in the United States, is amateurish (to be kind). But once the main character changes locations to Argentina, meets up with her grandmother, forges friendships, and encounters setbacks does everything about the movie change dramatically for the better—the quality of acting, the cinematography, the direction, even the music. Check it out, but wait patiently through those rough first thirty minutes.

We saw 3 Americas at a special screening on May 3rd, 2008 at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, followed by a question and answer session attended by the Writer/Director, Cristina Cornejo, her co-producer and several of the actors. The story line revolves around America, a 15-year-old American girl who lives in the United States but was born in Argentina. An orphan who lives with her aunt and an abusive uncle, an unfortunate tragedy results in her suddenly returning to Argentina to live with her Maternal Grandmother.Set in both Boston and Buenos Aires, the movie unfortunately suffers from amateurish acting for the first 25% of the movie, which takes place at its start in the United States. The movie does attempt to redeem itself once the story moves to Argentina, where the local actors were more professional and where the lead actress, Kristen Gonzales (America) obviously was able to benefit from the professionalism and support of the Argentinean cast.The story itself is a somewhat uneven tale of redemption in the face of adversity once America is forced to face up to her immaturity as a result of an unfortunate circumstance.I appreciated the effort that the Director/Writer made in filming this story, which she indicated was somewhat biographical. Ms. Cornejo has not secured an agreement to release the movie to-date consequently not very many people may see a decent first effort. It is unfortunate that anyone looking to take this movie on will first need to navigate a poorly preformed 30 minutes before the more qualitative part of the film kicks in.