Bread and Roses (2000) User Reviews (56)

The Anti-"Maid in Manhattan"

[surreyhill · 8/10 · 7 April 2003]

In this movie, there are no purloined designer clothes to masquerade in, and Prince Charming doesn't come complete with a political career and a three-piece suit--he's a scruffy charmer in a baggy t-shirt with little more to offer than a megaphone and a cause.

This is a film made by a director who has to be spiritual kin to Michael Moore, but his subject matter is quite different. Here we see real immigrants (both legal and illegal) being used rather cynically by companies whose business plan includes hiring the most downtrodden and fearful and hand-to-mouth in our country, paying them the lowest possible wages, giving them absolutely no benefits whatsoever, and thereby winning contracts to provide custodial and other services over companies that pay a fair and living wage, plus benefits, to primarily unionized employees who are American citizens. You know this really happens. It does. The best remedy for the situation is certainly a matter for debate, but no matter what your political slant or position on labor unions and illegal immigrants, you will most definitely find food for thought herein.

OTOH, if you are also one of the drooling legions of newbie Adrien Brody fangirls, you will find even more food for thought. Brody is painfully cute in this movie-a piquant mixuture of earnest, funny, sincere, sweet, and fiery, topped off with a kinghell case of `bedhead'.

The three central players are Pilar Padilla, as idealistic illegal immigrant Maya, her overburdened sister Rosa, played by Elipidia Carillo, and Brody as Sam Shapiro, an organizer and activist for the cause. No fairy tale, this movie, though a few of the cast are reasonably good-looking. The cast, many of whom really are janitors and custodians, are as real as it gets. You can see a lifetime of hard labor and long hours in their faces, and the slump to their shoulders.

I really grew to like these struggling janitors and maids. None of them were "types"--they were all real people and their conflicts and concerns were illuminated very well, despite limited screen time being available to each. By treating these characters with respect and making them fully-fleshed out, it made the passion of the organizers for this particular cause more understandable, and not just as sometimes seems the case in some portrayals, a matter of someone who is bored or spoiled or has some sort of guilt-complex trying to find their identity and using do-gooderism as a means to that end. Through coming out from the shadows, and joining the great and messy American experience of organized dissent, you could practically see some of these characters changing into `Americans' before your eyes, no matter what their official papers might say. Thinking like Americans, standing up for their rights, making their voices heard. That's how it's supposed to work-isn't it? Isn't it?

If there are caricatures in this movie, then those would be some of the building administrators, but their screen time is so limited, and they are usually so surprised and besieged by Sam Shapiro's stunts and protests that their lack of articulate or sympathetic response seems realistic enough to me. But the one thing that stands out is more than anything else is the absolutely natural acting style. Nobody really seems to be "acting" in this movie. It's as if there was a very unobtrusive documentary maker following these folks around. The movie is, however, well-paced between scenes which are rousing or charming, and those which are raw and painful.

Although this movie is not a love story or romance, per se, Adrien's character does get some action in it. In fact, in one amusing scene, he is literally hauled into a janitor's closet by an enterprising female (smart girl!!) and snogged silly. One can but applaud that sort of enterprise and initiative on the part of a recent arrival to this great country of ours. That's the kind of can-do immigrant spirit that made this country great, and if I were there, I would be sure to tell her how much I admired that quality in her, when I visited her in the hospital to apologize for having accidentally whacked her out of the way with a long-handled mop.

But it can't all be funny and cute, and indeed, in this same section of the movie is a scene of such raw emotion, harsh language, honesty, and truth, between the two Mexican sisters that I cannot say I have ever seen anything like it. Even Ebert said in his review that it's the kind of scene that would win an Oscar if the Academy ever saw movies like this, which of course, they don't.

The ending is both feel-good triumphant, and bittersweet. I think that such an ending was very much in keeping with the tone and overall realism of this movie--yes, some things changed for the better, but for people like these, not everyone gets that happy ending and lives happily ever after. At least, not right away.

There's real passion here, on the part of everyone involved, and it feels genuine, not manipulative. It's a pleasure to see a movie with good quality production values and excellent acting which was made for a reason, not just to make money.

Not about what you can do for a job, but what a job can do for you...

[ElMaruecan82 · 8/10 · 16 October 2022]

I don't know why but I've always had good interactions with janitors. Why should there be a reason? I respect their jobs: if a floor is shiny from having just been cleaned, I wouldn't dare stick my muddy shoes on it. Just like 'garbage men' these people's jobs consist of handling 'unwanted' stuff but unlike what Luis (Frank Davila) said, I don't think their uniform make them invisible, it is just that the world has turned so competitive and greed-driven that we all keep our chins up to get a share on the dream without caring much from the reality lying beneath us.

And it takes directors like Ken Loach to open our eyes on such realities, "Bread and Roses" -whose title derives from a poem turned into union slogan for industrial (lowly paid) workers- sheds the lights on the working conditions of janitors in Los Angeles, mostly South American immigrants who're not even acknowledged a right to unionize or get insurance. It's not about what you can do for a job but also what a job can do for you. But obviously, these people are at the bottom of the social pyramid and should value their luck for having wages, wages of fear or wages of wrath, wages anyway.

And so Loach provides a sort of behind-the-scenes look on the struggle of these unglamorous people who dance with the vacuum cleaner and empty our wastebaskets. It's not exactly a leftist tribute to the working man but a social commentary and a human study on the way they're often overlooked even by Hollywood itself. Indeed, go give me a film about maids or janitors that is not a Cinderella story. In "Bread and Roses", we look at janitors beyond their uniforms, they have kids, they have daily strugles to deal with, they have dreams too like Luis who wants to become a lawman. They are different: some are political, some don't care, it's not your monolithic group and Loach never tries to pull a Capra on his material.

The heroine is Maya (Pilar Padilla) who gets a job as a janitor from her sister Rosa (Elpidia Carilla) , both women are strong in different ways. Maya is a plucky little woman who illegally enters the territory, it's interesting that Loach teases us by not allowing the human traffickers to let her go join Rosa because she didn't give enough money. Five minutes later, she'll be back but there was one scene needed to introduce Maya as resourceful, funny and capable to survive, I won't spoil it, it's both funny and realistic, and she's pretty enough to lure any guy into it, better use the power you got. That character-establishing moment works because we do believe she can spend hours wandering around her building waiting for someone to connect to, work as a waitress and have great come-backs to some macho slurs.... then get a janitor's ob and even do an elevator prank her very first day. Such girls can get away with it.

Rosa has more years behind her, more experience, she's got a sick husband (Jack McGee) and a daughter, she could have used a line from another 2000s film "I have a family, I don't have the luxury of principles". Rosa knows it's not that the job offers enough to live, but that no job at all would just make living impossible, and when you have kids or a man who needs an operation, you'd be likely to kick any Ivy League long-haired "union" propagandist off your house. Sam Shapiro is that guy, he is introduced in a funny almost cartoonish way, trying to escape from three men, you've got to have the makings of a true con artist and in some funny twist, his methods match Maya's own resourceful nature. It's obvious from the start that a woman like Maya will be more receptive to the cause lead by Sam, both actors have great chemistry.

But it's a lost cause for Rosa, even when submitted paycheck from 1982 workers revealing that wages have decreased and right for health insurance cut out (that's the paper Sam retrieves) she refuses to hear the truth. In a way she agrees with Sam: big corporations will always win because workers depend more on their jobs than they do on workers. It's a psychological arm-wrestling and the solution doesn't come from a magic hat but for pressure, harassment and some media bait-and-switch stunts. Loach never makes the nerdy Brody a romantic Robin Hood but an overly idealistic protester ignorant of some harsh realities. In fact the other side has a convincing representative in chief of staff Perez (George Lopez) who tells workers: . "Join the union and they'll ask your papers and tax your money".

The central figure remains Rosa who has one of the greatest moments in a Loach film when she explains why she has no scruples betraying the workers, revealing to Mata that it didn't take just money to get her on the other side of the border as she had to cross her own existential border toi., something that make female worker even more subjected to a new form of slavery. The dynamics of the film operate in a way that never indulges to black vs white exposition. Loach reckons the social reality through scenes of sheer anger, constructive debates and a remarkable moment when they act as party-poopers in a little Hollywood celebration featuring some real actors like Tim Roth or Ron Perlman..

The scenes works as a subtle little jab at Hollywood, a close neighbor to Los Angeles. Now, let me pay tribute to Sasheen Littlefeather who just passed away. What Brando said about her being booed and taken off stage sums up the spirit of that scene and the whole janitor's fight: "they're ruining our fantasy with a little intrusion of reality". In "Bread and Roses", Loach allowed reality to intrude itself with bravura and gusto... mucho gusto!

This movie IS complex and smart, funny, and totally moving, IF you're truly open to it

[karenhc · 22 September 2004]

Yes, this film is about a "dreary" topic, labor organizing and workers struggling for a living wage. Yes, it is political in taking the point of view of the workers. Yes, the "heroes" are janitors, some of whom are "illegal" immigrants. These might be reasons why you might be "turned off" by the movie. BUT, if these are your reasons to refuse to see it or give the movie a bad review, then you are only judging this film with your HEAD, not your HEART or your GUT. I agree

with the reviewer who said that if you are not totally moved by the relationship of Maya and Rosa and what happens to them and the other workers, you need a

pulse check.

First of all, the movie, the characters, and the conflicts ARE complex, but the complexity is complicated and sometimes very subtle, just like in real life.

Just because it doesn't "show" you the life of the mean boss (played brilliantly by comedian George Lopez, whose humor about being Mexican in America is as

sharp as Chris Rock's about being Black in America) outside of his work doesn't mean that he is "one-dimensional." It's not hard to understand why he would be such an asshole at work, towards other "brown" people who are immigrants like him (or perhaps his parents or grandparents; he does speak Spanish but it's not clear whether he himself is an immigrant). Think about it! This is a guy who has probably sucked a lot of ass himself to get where he is--a brown manager in a large American corporation, working in one of the largest buildings in downtown L.A. Don't you think he's got a lot at stake himself to keep his job? Is he going to let a bunch of unruly janitors working under his thumb threaten his position as king of the hill of working colored people? Isn't he ultimately just as vulnerable as the janitors themselves?--the coporation probably sees him as a dime a

dozen too, if he doesn't do his job--which is to protect the corporation. Of course he's going to be ruthless and therefore "one-dimensional" in this environment. As for the other "corporate" workers, lawyers, etc.--they are ambushed by the workers in an environment where they expect them to be invisible and meek. I don't think it would be realistic for them to have any other initial response than shock and disbelief. This would also come across as "one dimensional" for

those who are only interested in seeing the "other side" get some sort of "equal play".

This is NOT a simplistic illegal immigrant-as-saint -and-totally-triumphant hero movie. Maya IS punished at the end for robbing a gas station and is deported on a bus to Tijuana. The INS officer tells her she is lucky to get off so lightly and indeed she is. Her sister Rosa does have to whore her way to the U.S. and is a traitor to her fellow workers. Maya comes across as young and impulsive and

morally a little questionable at times (she steals to help her friend get his scholarship), which is what she is. It's both what makes her charming and

vulnerable. Her Mexican immigrant boyfriend accuses her of ditching him for

the labor organizer (Sam, played by Adrien Brody) because he's white, and she denies it a little too vehemently.

I found that Adrien Brody was a far less powerful presence in the film than the actors who played the workers. His zeal as a labor organizer was legitimately questioned--by Maya, who asks him, what does he have at stake, as a college- educated worker whose $22,000 organizer salary is still almost double that of the janitors and who doesn't have to support extended relatives like they do? And his supervisor in the union also becomes upset that his risky

confrontational antics will jeopardize the union and wants him to back off the entire fight. That scene displays enough of the intra-union politics to show that unions themselves are imperfect crusader agents--they also pick and choose

battles, often choosing the ones that they think they can win. And self- righteousness is probably an easy trap to fall into for union organizers when the odds against their victories are so high; they gotta find some reason to continue this hard work!

I agree that the scenes of Sam, confronting the building manager, and the

ending where the corporation all of a sudden bows down and decides to settle

w/ the striking workers and reinstate all of them, are unrealistic and less than convincing. But on the whole, this a movie that punches you in the gut, has

good humorous moments and good pacing, and characters that make you care

about them, IF you are open to it and pay attention to subtleties that are there.

under the expectations

[antoniotierno · 6/10 · 28 March 2005]

Same typical themes handled in Loach's work. I felt something strange, while watching it, maybe the San Diegan locations might be strange to the fans used to seeing English and Scottish cities. Nevertheless I couldn't say the effort of observation and insight doesn't work; the young Mexican gal propelled by the American dream is very believable, the unknown cast acts with passion, expressing the various faces of injustice and biases migrants must endure. However, my final opinion on the movie is that it fails to illustrate the real situations these kind of people live in and their genuine feelings, that is the Ken Loach's peculiarity.

Very Good...until the End

[Dfree52 · 6/10 · 1 June 2010]

OK...my problem was we're presented with an effective, compelling story that gets flushed at the end.

SPOILER ALERT: Why does Maya steal for a man she's not in love with? And Maya, didn't you think of slipping on some latex gloves before you touched the cash register?

Also...what was up with only facing 3 years for robbery? What happened to unlawful imprisonment for the guy she locked in the bathroom...who had a witness to it?

Also...didn't Maya and Sam (the guy she does love) discuss what would happen if the cops showed up during the demonstration in the building lobby? It was only done to weed out any illegal aliens...would they risk that? Once the cops ordered them to leave, in the real world all of the illegals would have stepped outside.

It also seemed that the resolution came too fast and out of nowhere...too much like now we need to hurry and get the movie over with.

The Least of Ken's Films (that I've seen)

[Always_against_torture · 6/10 · 10 June 2006]

On the whole I have been greatly impressed with Ken Loach's other works, however, without question, this was the low point in my experiences with his films. Speaking as a Brit with a lot of North American life experience, I would say that Ken understands and portrays British society brilliantly, however, he hopelessly misunderstands American society. At one point, for example, one of the evil company bosses is supposed to be excruciatingly shamed in public by the gutsy and imaginative union organiser who crashes his lunch meeting ... only, in America, this simply wouldn't work - at all - in a restaurant like that in the US the other patrons would respect someone for making money & not give a crap what some "scrub" had to say about the percentage rate of profit that went into x dental plan, or what have you (I'm not really sure that that would work in Britain or anywhere else either - but in any event, it seems to me, never in the US & especially never in LA). As such, all the fabulous nuance that invades Loach's British based films is starkly absent in this one. Consequently, watching Bread and Roses was quite literally an excruciating experience - like watching a childhood hero fail embarrassingly, & without grace. Ken creating wooden characters? How is it possible?? (See above). I don't consider myself political. I am someone interested in ideas, fairness and justice. I respect people who approach the world with those ideas in mind. On this basis I usually have all the time in the world for the films that Ken creates. But realistically, I can't recommend this one. In the end I gave this movie a 5 & a half (then rounded up) but all of its score comes from a particular realistic, powerful and highly revealing moment. There's too much of the remainder left over, however, for that single moment to carry the whole.

Of Bread and Roses

[martinigirl13 · 10/10 · 22 April 2003]

As the daughter of hard-working Mexican immigrant parents and having been raised in one of Los Angeles' poorest barrios, I often saw the story of Rosa and Maya being played out in real life within my family and amongst my neighbors. The authenticity with which this story is told is astounding, showing a deep respect for those who in search of a way to make an honest living, subject themselves to countless humiliations and are relegated to live outside the margins of mainstream America.

Kudos to the writers!! This is the first time I have ever seen an American film in which the dialogue in Spanish was written by someone who actually speaks the language and can grasp the nuances and feeling of the language so perfectly. Richard Hicks is to be commended for casting both Elpidia Carrillo and Pilar Padilla in the roles of Rosa and Maya, respectively. They deliver their dialogue, especially in Spanish, with an emotion and passion that is rarely seen on the Hollywood silver screen. Needless to say, Bread and Roses is now on my list of must-have-films to add to my DVD library.

Interesting But Simplistic

[foolishewe · 6/10 · 24 March 2002]

Bread and Roses was a good movie in some ways, and has some appeal in showing the sorts of barriers and prejudices Latinos face in the U.S. The acting in general was good, but I had some issues with the script writing. In particular, the pro labor stance taken here (noted by other's) was presented in a bit over-simplistic terms (particularly later in the film) and the organized labor response employed situational ethics. Furthermore, the bad guys in the film (except possibly the manager, Perez, masterfully played by George Lopez) were in general portrayed as simpletons, who could be rather easily outwitted. Maya's character almost reminded me of La India Maria (the character popularized by María Elena Velasco ) at points. I wish Rosa's character was more developed, the presented part was well handled (I don't wish to give spoilers here).

So I gave this film a 6 out of 10, as a well intentioned but somewhat weakly scripted story. The acting was generally good. The depiction of latino-anglo, black-latino and native born latinos-mexican born latinos was well portrayed.

Just Experience It and Enjoy

[tommyg · 9/10 · 10 May 2001]

When I attended a screening a week ago sponsored by a local public supported radio station (KPFK) in Los Angeles, I was not certain if this film was a documentary or typical crafted Hollywood-style hyperbole since I listened with half an ear while jogging and listening to an opportunity to attend.

Who would have thought that a simple discussion on a local public supported radio station in Los Angeles (KPFK) a few years ago would compel a screenwriter (Paul Laverty) to visit a union organizing effort in downtown Los Angeles (circa 1999) resulting in a film that was drama, comedy, farce, fear, compassion and a taste of dusted immigrants creeping through Tijuana-to-USA shrubs to gain entry via the abusive "coyotes" human smuggler routes. Most of these immigrants land in day-worker situations and low pay and yet Los Angeles would collapse without them. This film concentrates on the downtown office area -- owned and occupied by the elite of Los Angeles establishment - and where many undocumented workers toil under conditions that are far less than that suggested by international Human Rights standards.

This was a polished non-Hollywood-capability-film but yet intimately Los Angeles. I listened to an interview yesterday on KPFK with Laverty and learned that funding was elsewhere - Europe I recall - not 'Hollywood'. And Laverty is from Scotland. One would never guess that the film was actually on the low-budget scale when compared with Hollywood's pleasure to spend big dollars.

I also learned that the film was made in 30-days (hence the vibrant interaction of all cast members and energetic direction by Loach) and is in release this week with 30 prints in Los Angeles, and 300 nationwide USA. Sounds like some symmetry there and potential Lottery pick permutations.

My only reservation is that the story is highly political in an undercurrent nature and may frighten an extensive audience --- unless the viewers just take the courage to go, watch, and enjoy. The film will do the rest. The viewer will leave with more than the cost of a matinee price ticket.

I also suggest that in an upcoming meeting between Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, and George W. Bush, President of United States, that Vicente snag a copy of the film and show it to George while sipping tea in Texas. And then for dessert, sip more tea and watch "Traffic".

capital x labor

[joaodelauraaurora · 7/10 · 2 January 2002]

Like Costa Gavras, director Ken Loach thinks that cinema is a powerful instrument for noble causes - political as well as social - rather than pure entertainment. "Bread and Roses" is a story about a group of L.A. janitors trying to unionize, while two of them, the Mexican sisters Maya and Rosa, end up following completely different paths. Loach's conflict between capital and labor may seem a bit schematic or didactic, but reality is not much more complex. In fact, "Bread and Roses" avoids two easy and simplistic solutions: to divert the labor-oriented plot to a love story between Maya and Sam (the witty union organizer), and to give us an unlikely but comforting happy end. The bittersweet finale fits perfectly. Also good is Rosa's monologue on how she managed to survive in the U.S., though the most magnetic character is Maya's, with her humorous energy, her smart but well intentioned tricks, her very personal but undeniably warmhearted ethics. Not a brilliant movie, but a good one (7/10).

Vivid dramatic depiction of workers' struggle and perseverance

[co_iww · 10/10 · 7 March 2001]

"Bread and Roses" is an engaging film about immigrant workers' struggles against poverty, state violence, and economic exploitation. I saw "Bread and Roses" at the Denver Film Festival thinking it was going to be a dry, lecturing documentary. Instead, it was a nuanced and complex dramatic depiction of powerful and engaging characters. It is rare to find such a politically charged film that is made so effective by presenting very human characters struggling with the contradictions of everyday life. It allows us to appreciate the tough choices we all make in conditions not of our own choosing--it allows us to explore issues outside of the knee-jerk judgments of good guy/bad guy and appreciate the very human responses to often inhuman circumstances we all participate in creating. The acting is generally very good, especially for a "low budget" production, but the main character's older sister delivers a monologue on her struggles with deprivation that still chills me to the bone even though I saw it months ago. Sorry for leaving out the details, but this is one film whose details you'll want to discover for yourself.

Politically incorrect but still enjoyable.

[Nocgirl72 · 7/10 · 29 January 2002]

I was rather inpressed with this movie even though I don't agree with the message or the cause in this film. I personally feel that if you are in this country illegally anyways, you are at the mercy of your employer. All political opinions aside though, I thought the acting was good-especially from breakthrough actress Pilar Padilla (Maya.) Very interesting movie with a realistic touch. 7/10.

Underwhelming. Yet again.

[LunarPoise · 4/10 · 23 December 2010]

Illegal Mexican immigrant Maya (Pilar Padilla) arrives at her big sister's house looking to work with her as an office cleaner. She dodges potential abduction and rape on her hazardous quest to make a better life for herself. However, union organiser Sam (Adrien Brody) convinces her that betterment lies not in slaving for below minimum wage, but in joining his Justice for Janitors campaign.

Watching Bread and Roses I realised that, for many years, my wish to support Ken Loach and Paul Laverty has over-ruled my actual dislike for their films. Bread and Roses references an inspiring story, but the actual relaying of it cinematically by Loach, and in narrative terms by Laverty, is flat and under-realized. The rhythm of the scenes is stuttering, like poor improv or early rehearsals. Sam shows up at big sister Rosa's house, and immediately launches into a pro-union speech like he has known these people for a while. The cleaning company boss is a pantomime villain. There is some kind of spurious romance triangle that never really develops, and a few so-called comedy scenes to ease the intended sense of tragedy, except the whole thing is so uninvolving that it hardly matters.

As much as Laverty cannot characterise beyond two-note archetypes, Loach appears unable to manage shot flow. The camera seems merely plonked down in front of the actors - there is not one frame where the composition seems planned, never mind memorable.

Kes is a masterpiece. But since then, I have sat through Riff Raff, Land and Freedom, Sweet Sixteen, My Name is Joe, Carla's Song, Ae Fond Kiss... and come away underwhelmed each and every time. The themes are oh-so earnest, the politics very correct, the focus on the under-represented, marginalised and disenfranchised laudable in the extreme. It just never seems cinematic. Does Loach ask himself "Why is this topic better as a fiction feature than a documentary?" If he does, I cannot imagine what the answer is.

My father was a car factory shop steward, so I grew up with these issues in my living room. I come from a Glasgow working-class background, so I am empathetic to many of Laverty's chosen arenas. But the bottom line is, I just don't find myself entertained or edified by any of these films. Watching Bread and Roses, I didn't laugh, and I didn't cry. And it was clearly going after both reactions.

Loach does get some great performances at times (e.g. Peter Mullen in My Name is Joe), and here Pilar Padilla as the lead, and Elpidia Carrillo as her long-suffering elder sister Rosa, bring a touch of authentic rawness to the subject. But in a key revelatory scene between the two, the camera is placed at an in-between distance, the cutting arbitrary, and the words seem scripted rather than spontaneous.

Loach and Laverty now have a substantial body of work to their collaboration. Quite simply, I do not understand why.

not since Martin Balsam

[oldwobbly · 12 March 2001]

Elpidia Carrillo has a scene in this film equal to the "...I'm the best possible Arnold Burns" self-justification speech in A THOUSAND CLOWNS. It's so real and raw it's almost hard to watch. I saw this film at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, and it so beautifully delivers the drama and the realities of the Justice for Janitors campaign. Ken Loach does it again...with an American accent (ALL the Americas). Adrien Brody is Ron Leibman's NORMA RAE organizer if he were younger and less seasoned, but just as much the true believer. Pilar Padilla's Maya is all passion and youth and fun-loving troublemaker. The documentary style that Ken Loach uses is perfect for the subject.

Entertaining but simplistic

[howie73 · 6/10 · 4 May 2005]

Ken Loach's one-dimensional liberal stance spoils this otherwise entertaining film about an illegal Mexican immigrant, Maya,who finds a job as a cleaner in an anonymous downtown LA skyscraper where her American-based sister, Rosa, already works. The film follows fiery Rosa's plight as an underpaid cleaner, her various conflicts with her sister and her eventual political awakening via the intervention of Adrien Brody's character, Sam Shapiro, a subversive Union representative. The film is a fictional reinterpretation of real life events involving the Justice for Janitors campaign against low pay for cleaners. Despite the human dramas that unfold during the film, Bread and Roses is a thinly-veiled attack on American economical injustice, especially against illegal immigrant workers. Oddly enough, Loach does not balance his Anti-American views against the lack of opportunities and poverty in Mexico. He never considers why Maya has left Mexico. Yes, she wanted to be with her sister - but was this the only reason? it's very easy to take pot shots at North America, but when it's this simplistic, one must question Mr Loach's lack of subtlety as a filmmaker. Overall, Bread and Roses works best as a human drama rather than a political one.

Ken's Glasgow becomes L.A.

[tim-764-291856 · 6/10 · 1 October 2012]

You have to admire good, worthy Ken Loach. Always admirable in motive and honest depiction, he is Britain's true indie maverick.

However, when he moved this production and story to L.A., even I felt a bit cheated and I'm sure a few lost allegiance for the director. But, just because it (at least at first) seems to lacks the kaleidoscope of colourful characters that we can identify with when he's shooting on home soil, it's about the people and in this case, Mexican workers employed illegally by a large non-union contractor as office cleaners.

I've heard of Americans requiring subtitles in order to decipher a thick Glaswegian accent and here we experience lots of subtitles, as much of the dialogue, from a largely amateur cast, is in Spanish. We, who're used to such soon get used to this but it's all a slight barrier and uphill struggle before we feel submersed into the story.

The story itself won't be recited around campfires for years to come and the dialogue is more of your typical bitty everyday conversation than the lovingly crafted screenplays that win awards. The filming, often in similar looking corridors and offices hardly allows for creativity either, but as Mr Loach is the nearest we have to the simplistic approach to the Scandinavian 'Dogme' movement, this comes as no surprise.

A charismatic Adrien Brody drops his Oscar winning stature to play a 'Justice For Janitors' unionist and at first we see him hiding around workplaces where he is definitely not welcome. He soon gets on the case of two young women, recently taken on as cleaners but have families to support.

Like more locally grown Loach's, there's lots of often grating arguing, raised voices, splashes of humour plus that all-important social message. We, or at least I, perhaps wrongly, however, cannot quite warm to the campaign as much as I do with a British Ken Loach film and like the characters themselves, feel somewhat alienated from both them and their plight.

So, far from Ken's best but still not bad.

Another well intentioned movie from director Ken Loach

[jordondave-28085 · 6/10 · 13 April 2023]

(2000) Bread and Roses DRAMA

A common theme of the middle class director, Ken Loach depicting illegal immigration rights and their right to form a union. Starring Pilar Padilla as Maya employed as a maid at a high class hotel, crossing paths with Sam (Adrien Brody) attempting to form an union within the janitor workers of the hotel. Bringing along with this protest is Pilar's sister, Rosa played by Elpidia Carrillo.

This is kind of an updated version of "Norma Rae", as most jobs are low pay with long hours and can be put in the position to be fired for the smallest thing. What is unusual, is the American setting as director, Ken Loach is most known for portraying citizen life of Ireland, Scotland and the UK.

A brilliant, emotional film.

[tenten76 · 9/10 · 21 October 2002]

I have a deep sympathy & connection with this movie, because two of my dearest friends were Spanish-speaking cleaners in the UK (although completely legally). Now - through ridiculously hard work and frugal living - they are bilingual, educated, skilled, and making a decent life back in their home country, where I hope to visit them one day.

As such, I can tell you that this film is so true-to-life it brought tears to my eyes. It also has moments of laughter and comedy, and an extremely important message to anyone working for low wages and low respect, and an equally important kick up the backside to people like me who never think we're paid enough, and forget about the 'invisible' people earning half our wages for doing twice the workload.

The actors (many of them cleaners in real life) are never less than excellent, and you have no trouble believing every scene. I encourage anyone to watch this movie, as it has an almost Shawshank-like feelgood factor, but is much more poignant and relevant than even that great film.

The additional programme on the DVD is not as informative as I expected (being more 'fly-on-the-wall' than documentary), but still packs a powerful emotional punch, and really adds to your appreciation of the reality behind the movie.

Ken Loach is always Great even in USA

[silviopellerani · 7/10 · 25 August 2001]

I did not have any doubt about a Loach's film shot in USA, the social power and the rest of the elements of his films are there.

The "cleaners" reality, not only in USA, is always the same, they are underpaid and normally without social security services and benefits. This is a beautiful and very sad history about a Mexican girl who wants to find fortune in USA with her sister that is already in Los Angeles. Is well known that power of the unions in USA is not as strong as in Europe and this is the "leit motiv" of the film. A "cleaner" union is starting to be more powerful and the main character, the girl, is trying to convince the rest of the workers of the importance of a union. Then there is a love relation between her and the union leader with the final achievement of their rights.

Rating: 7/10

Justice for Janitors

[Red-125 · 9/10 · 16 August 2019]

Bread and Roses (2000) is a UK/European film set in Los Angeles. The movie was directed by Ken Loach.

The film is a semi-documentary about the Los Angeles Justice for Janitors campaign that begin in 1990. The movie captures the techniques used by the janitors and union organizers to bring economic justice to janitors who were overworked and underpaid. The janitors learned that simple peaceful picketing didn't work. Using the techniques of the United Farm Workers and Saul Alinsky, they had to make themselves annoying and unpleasant to the cleaning companies and to the companies that had contracts with them.

The movie also contains a romance between union organizer Sam (Adrien Brody) and Mexican immigrant Maya (Pilar Padilla). Both are wonderful actors. Brody is a true star. This was Padilla's first film, but she is a strong and forceful presence on the screen. (Yes--also very beautiful.)

Ken Loach is a brilliant director. I've seen many of his films, and I've never been disappointed. We saw this movie on DVD, where it worked well. Bread and Roses has a fairly good IMDb rating of 7.1. I think it's better than that, and I highly recommend it.

Brody is a bit annoying

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 16 May 2016]

Illegals are brought in over the border. They are quickly put to work. Maya has to escape from lecherous coyotes. Her sister Rosa gets her a non-union janitor job under dictatorial supervisor Perez (George Lopez). Union man Sam Shapiro (Adrien Brody) is pushing to organize and Rosa is hostile. Sam does a presentation for the workers and later Perez finds out.

Adrien Brody needs to be more likable in this movie but he is too cold to the workers' concerns. He is also kinda bad at his job. He has nothing to lose but he asks these workers to risk everything. In a way, he's more annoying than the George Lopez character. The workers are the compelling characters. Digging deeper on some of those characters could be more effective.

Maya has a knack for making strangers

[eabakkum · 8/10 · 4 January 2016]

Director Ken Loach describes in the film "Bread and roses" the struggle of an American trade union in order to improve the working conditions of the janitors. And they are actually victorious, since finally the firm gives in to their demands. So on the surface Bread and roses is another homage to the search for freedom and justice. Joke, to make this review more attractive: a lawyer, who assists a client in a law suit, calls him: "Justice has prevailed!" The client replies: "So we have lost the case?" Loach is like that. Although his films always concern the socially deprived, the personal shortcomings of the main characters dominate the social injustice. This makes his films rather gloomy, since the viewer finds it hard to identify with the characters. Bread and roses fits particularly well in this scheme of Loach. Although probably the "Justice for janitors" campaign was not as glorious as its reputation, Bread and roses really sketches an unfavorable image. The main character Maya is selfcentred and almost devoid of morals. She has a knack for making strangers immediately. When she enters the USA from Mexico as an illegal immigrant, she and her sister Rosa even cheat on the human traffickers. Maya accepts a job offer in a public house, but she soon gets into a fight with customers. Then she wants to work as a cleaning woman, just like her sister Rosa. The husband of Rosa is unemployed, he suffers from diabetes, and has never paid for health care insurance. Rosa is a former prostitute, who is still in the habit. She does not even know who is the father of her children, so apparently she economizes on contraceptives. If here Loach mocks at her, I find it a bit morbid. In her cleaning work Maya retains her lax attitude. Just one detail: she uses the stationery of the clients of her cleaning firm to write her personal letters. Hard work never killed anybody, but why take the chance? Her colleagues are industrious. Maya complains that they do anything for the money. However, it must be admitted that her employer is harsh. For instance, he does not pay for health care. So the firm has low costs, and ousts the unionized competitors from the market. Obviously the union dislikes this. Therefore one of her organizers instigates the workers of the cleaners firm, including Maya, and harasses its clients. He does not shun aggressive methods, like disturbance of the domestic peace. Maya, who always loves to complain, agitates for the union. At the same time, she robs an employee of a gas station, who tries to help her. She is indeed a prime candidate for natural de-selection. In the end she is arrested. The state offers her a lawyer free of charge, but she asks for a witness for the defence (joke). Maya is expelled to Mexico, without imprisonment. Incidentally, it strikes me, that Loach imputes a hatred of the American society to the illegal immigrants in his film. So how should Bread and roses be rated? The quality of Loach films lies in their excellence in showing the room for social improvements. But personally, I prefer films that show at least a glimpse of human kindness and decency.

Flawed but worthy

[dr_clarke_2 · 7/10 · 26 December 2022]

Ken Loach's 2000 film Bread and Roses marks a rare foray overseas for the director, with a screenplay by Paul Laverty about Los Angeles janitors fighting for better working conditions and the right to unionise. It is inspired (but not strictly based on) the "Justice for Janitors" campaign of the Service Employees International Union and it's easy to see why it appealed to Loach, given its themes of oppressed workers fighting for their rights.

The film follows Pilar Padilla's Maya, who is exploited in different ways at every opportunity, by the smugglers who bring her to the USA, and by her boss, who casually extorts chunks of her initially salary as the price of giving her a job. In keeping with many Loach films, it is resolutely one-sided, with the employers represented by George Lopez's obnoxious bully Perez. Laverty also targets the US health insurance system, with Jack McGee's Bert a diabetic who is unable to afford insulin (predictably, this catches up with him later in the film). Alongside this social commentary however, Laverty's script characteristically includes plenty of humour, such as when Maya evades the smuggler who expects her to have sex with him by stealing his keys and boots and locking him in a hotel room. Later, Sam Shapiro first appears in a scene that is positively slapstick. The result, as in other Loach/Laverty collaborations is a mix of serious themes and humour that never quite gels, with the two sitting uneasily side-by-side.

It aims to be very weighty and very worthy, with mixed success. Critics of Loach should note that it features female non-white protagonists, again demonstrating that he's often led by his writers. The opening scenes of the Mexican immigrants being smuggled into the USA by unpleasant people smugglers, who demand sex for payment when the money isn't enough, are shot in Spanish with English subtitles. That said, it takes "white college boy" Sam Shapiro to incite the janitors to action, a fact that the script openly acknowledges. Like much of Laverty's work, there is a great deal that is predictable, including Bert's diabetes worsening and Sam and Maya's romantic relationship, plus the fact that she clashes with Ruben, whose hopes and dreams of a scholarship are nearly ruined by the campaign for better conditions. It also gets very overwrought, notably during the scene when Rosa tells Maya that she worked as a whore for five years when she came to the USA, whilst the extensive party scene is pure padding. Interestingly, Maya saves the day by resorting to criminal behaviour, in this case stealing from a convenience store to pay for Ruben's scholarship; in many Loach films, such behaviour is implicitly excused if it is committed by the oppressed working classes, but here, unexpectedly, the film ends with Maya being deported as an alternative to prosecution when she gets caught, ending her life in the United States and her relationship with Sam.

The cast is excellent, which Loach's temporary move to America allowing him to work with more high profile stars than usual, including Adrien Brody as Sam Shapiro and Elpidia Carrillo as Rosa (there are also cameos by Benicio del Toro, Ron Perlman, Tim Roth and Chris Penn). Shooting the film on location in Los Angeles also pays off; once again working with Barry Ackroyd, Loach makes good use of unfamiliar locations, swapping grimy English (and occasionally Scottish) council estates for rundown American suburbs. It remains recognisably a Loach film and demonstrates his usual skill behind the camera, although its production is slightly marred by George Fenton's variable score, which is frequently heavy-handed, with irritating whimsical refrains used to tell the audience when something intended to be amusing is happening. Bread and Roses isn't Loach's best film - not for the first or last time, it is undermined by Laverty's slightly clumsy storytelling - but it certainly makes for an interesting entry into his catalogue.

Mediocre flick saved by Padilla and Carillo.

[=G= · 5/10 · 12 July 2002]

"Bread and Roses" is a journeyman drama at best which centers on the plight of an illegal Mexican alien, Maya (Padilla), and her struggle to help a union organize the janitorial laborers in a Los Angeles office building. The film is ill-focused, a tad soapy, plays to the viscera, and shows some mean spirited demonstrating which would more likely hurt than help the worker. However, Padilla makes a wonderful centerpiece for a flick which will most likely appeal to Hispanics and others with an interest in the problems of Mexican labor in America. C+