Synopsis
15 años y un día is a movie that talks about a crisis that arises between a grandfather and his grandson due to the difference in their expectations. The grandson’s name is Jon, and his grandfather’s name is Max. Jon is an adolescent whose behavior has been worsening over time. He is expelled from school, forcing his mother to think of an alternative way of correcting his behavior. She decides to let him stay with his grandfather in a coastal town away from her. She has experienced many stressing situations and does not want Jon to give her more stress. She has been an unemployed actress for some time. Worse still, her husband died when Jon was still young, leaving her with the trouble of bringing up the boy.
While with his grandfather at the coast, Jon does not show any improvement. Instead, he becomes worse than when he was with his mother. He joins bad companies in the neighborhood and they engage in very many bad activities, despite his grandfather’s strictness. They smoke, fight and engage in many other dangerous activities. In one scene, he crosses the road in front of a speeding vehicle to prove to his friends that he was good at riding a bicycle. In another incident, he fights with a friend, who seriously injures him. The story ends when Jon, his mother and grandfather realize that strictness cannot help in reforming one’s behavior (Shoemaker 12).
Analysis of the Main Ideas in the Movie
The main theme in the movie is juvenile delinquency, its causes and its possible solutions. The other theme in the movie is the problems single parents experience when raising their children. These themes run concurrently throughout the film.
Juvenile delinquency is a very big issue among Latinos living in their native countries and the Latinos who immigrated into the US. Many adolescents of the Latino origin belong to gangs that engage in criminal activities. In the US, for example, Latino teens are the second largest ethnic group that engages in criminal activities (Rodriguez 23). In the movie, Jon is a delinquent who gets an expulsion from school and has to stay with his grandfather away from his mother.
However, he does not change. He engages in more dangerous activities. The producer of the film uses Jon to show the difficulties that single parents go through. Jon would have been a better boy if his father had been alive. His mother realizes that he needs a strict man to help him reform, and she sends him to stay with his grandfather. However, it is too late. He cannot reform. His inability to reform implies that harsh rules cannot help in reforming the behavior of a delinquent teen. Instead, it makes him fear his parents and practice his bad activities even more than before.
Conclusion
The movie effectively presents the main cause of juvenile delinquency and the best way to handle delinquent adolescents. It disapproves the use of force and harsh rules in handling such youths and, instead, proposes the use of dialogue. The movie also shows the problems that come with single parenthood. It appropriately handles these topics. It is a very good movie for adolescents to watch because they can easily identify with it.
Works Cited
Rodriguez, Melissa. Contributing Factors Leading Toward Gang-Membership Among Adolescent Latinos, Pasadena, CA.: Pacific Oak College, 2006. Print.
Shoemaker, Donald J. Juvenile Delinquency, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. Print.