NewEnglandFilm.com

In a country as multicultural as the United States — a nation built on immigrants — you would expect (or at least hope) the movies produced here would reflect our ethnic diversity. Alas, minority roles in American films tend to fall into the standard categories: the villains and gangbangers; the faithful sidekicks who offer mystical advice and/or sacrifice their lives for the sake of white leads; and  the wisecracking outsiders who yuk their way into polite, white society. Spike Lee films excepted, rarely does an American film address multicultural issues in anything other than a cursory, smug way — one that’s simple enough to allow the (mostly white) audience to feel good about itself and marvel at the rightness of our all-accepting country.

It’s refreshing, then, to see the true multicultural conflict, wrinkles and all, of Natatcha Estebanez and Jan Egleson’s "The Blue Diner." Set in the Latino neighborhoods of Boston and performed in both English and Spanish, the film centers around Elena (Lisa Vidal), a Puerto Rican woman pressured to both assimilate into Anglo society and cling to her cultural heritage. Her mother Meche (Miriam Colón) hardly speaks a word of English and yet she encourages Elena’s relationship with her employer’s son Brian (Jack Mulcahy), who needs translation for all but the most rudimentary Spanish. And Meche vehemently rails against the charismatic Tito (Jose Yenque), insisting that he wants to marry Elena only to gain U.S. citizenship. As the sole bilingual employee at her job at a casket manufacturer, Elena must constantly negotiate between the English-speaking owners and the Spanish-speaking workers and customers. Even as she walks down the street, she finds herself constantly reminded of the pull the two cultures exert on her.

And then the unexpected happens. Elena suffers a minor stroke that causes a lesion in the language center of her brain, resulting in some rather unusual symptoms. While perhaps not psychologically likely, the symptoms make perfect metaphorical sense, as they render her unable to successfully bridge the gap between the two cultures. Everyone she meets has a different theory about what her symptoms mean, how they were caused, and how they can be resolved.

Ultimately, Elena must find her own way out of her dilemma, digging deep into her psyche to discover where her truest devotions lie. Along the way, she must come to grips with the memory of her long-departed father, El Canario, a charming crooner whose voice and songs continue to haunt her. In her father’s absence, she seeks some stability in her mother’s old friend Papo (William Marquez), the chef at the Blue Diner, a Puerto Rican restaurant featuring his specialty, fried plantains and cesos, or, in Gringo-speak, bananas and brains. Meanwhile, Tito has broken into the Museum of Fine Arts to — of all things — add a painting to the museum’s collection.

Throughout, Estebanez and Egleson tell Elena’s story with subtlety, humor, and compassion. Numerous narrative tricks are used to good effect, including interviews with the characters and a nicely conceived shift in time (the film starts with the discovery of Elena’s brain lesion, complete with evocative brain-scan imagery). And the actors excel throughout, in particular Colon (whose acting credentials include such films as "Lone Star" and "All the Pretty Horses") as Elena’s passionate, headstrong mother. The film is guilty of a little stereotyping of gringos, who here seem completely oblivious to anything Latino — although perhaps this is not far from the norm — and the happy ending comes a touch too easily. But the film succeeds far more often than it stumbles. "The Blue Diner" has heart and smarts — and not just the ones on the menu.