Raising Victor Vargas

I have to admit, in spite of everyone telling me how charming it was, I found this film mostly just annoying. The main characters, 16-year-old Lothario Victor Vargas and his personality-less love interest, Judy, are just deeply boring and one-dimensional. On the other hand, the secondary characters are well written and interesting, especially Judy’s friend Melonie (played expertly by newcomer Melonie Diaz) and Victor’s brother Nino and sister Vicki. If the film had kept the extremely Hollywood love story of Victor and Judy in the background, and focused on their friends and families, it would have been an interesting and even innovative movie. As it stands, it’s just another Meg Ryan film, only with teenagers from the Bronx.