Moving coming-of-age film

Winner of two awards at this year's Sundance film festival, "Quinceanera" is a charming film about redemption and forgiveness. The story begins slowly as a group of teenagers gush over their friend Magdalena (Emily Rios) while she plans her Quinceanera, a Latina's coming-of-age party as she turns 15.

Magdalena is, in most respects, a typical teenager. She passes time after school on the sidewalk with her classmates and frets over the budding relationship she has with her boyfriend, Herman. She worries about her Quinceanera dress, a hand-me-down from an older cousin, and hopes her father will rent a Hummer limo, an out-sized, showy vehicle that comes equipped with an illuminated "stripper's pole."

As her big day approaches, Magdalena finds that she is pregnant. Her father, the conservative pastor of a local storefront church, feels humiliated by these circumstances and forces Magdalena from the family home.

Magdalena takes refuge in the backyard home of her elderly uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez), a kindly bachelor who cheerfully makes room for her. Once there, she joins her cholo cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia) who has also taken refuge in the tiny, cluttered home.

The two cousins don't find much in common with one another, but after initial childish resentments, they begin to bond. They are two outcasts who can benefit each other.

She has a nice way about prodding him along to a more productive life, and when she notices that her clothes no longer fit, he offers her a flannel shirt that conceals her ever-expanding pregnancy.

However, the differences in the cousins are very apparent. Magdalena is only 14, but she is a calm, collected 14, the kind of kid often referred to today as an "old soul." She possesses a cool solemnity and seems to accept her condition without the hysterics that one might expect from someone her age.

She somehow finds the courage to confront her boyfriend's mother and the wisdom to back away when the woman adamantly refuses to cooperate with her.

Carlos is anything but calm. In fact, he is a pretty rough character. He is a vandal who pilfers items from local merchants, and is a sexually confused gangbanger with his area code "213" tattooed on the back of his neck.

He often gives in to fits of temperament and is not the least bit shy about cursing a blue streak and fighting at the slightest provocation.