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Spoiler Points for Illegal Tender (2007) [R] 108 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $11.25
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Click to read the non-spoiler review
At the ripe old age of 20ish, Wilson DeLeon Jr. (Rick Gonzalez) starts to treat his mother, Millie (Wanda De Jesus) rather poorly and with much disrespect. He's grown a bit tired of her careless relationships with men. As much as he adores his little brother, Randy (Antonio Ortiz), he doesn't want to see her raising her third fatherless child. He gallivants around their Connecticut suburb in his supercharged, sports car acting like he virtually owns the place, yet he's done absolutely nothing to earn his position. Millie has lost control of him.
In the grocery store one afternoon, however, Millie runs into a ghost from her past. One that she knows could be the end of her and her family. So, she rushes home with plans to move to a new town just as she has done two times before. Javier Cordero's men will be calling soon, with plans to extract revenge.
But, this time, Wilson Jr. won't comply. He's happy in college, loves his girlfriend, and has no intention of being uprooted for mysterious reasons. Millie does everything she can to convince him to leave with her and Randy, but he won't comply. She finally breaks down and reveals to him that his father was a drug dealer for Javier Cordero (Gary Perez) and that Cordero had him murdered. She does not explain why he was marked for murder, turns out she doesn't really know the full story herself. All she can figure is that Cordero believe that he has been skimming profits and hiding the money for himself which he wasn't. Actually, their wealth was due to Millie's good sense to force his customers to pay back their loans to him from their own company checks thereby laundering the money and making it 'legal tender'. She's been investing his earnings on top of that to vastly increase their wealth. Wilson can hardly believe his eyes when she shows him the gun safe she's had in the basement for years to open and protect them if the need arrived. She loads up with guns and heads out without him. He stays behind in his home with his girlfriend, Ana (Dania Ramirez) planning to somehow fend for himself. He has no concern nor regard for his mother and basically dismisses the threat. He says several times, "It's been 20 years, ma," as if in his experience and fine education he's never heard of grudge that lasted longer than a season of MTV's "Real World". Well, his stupidity doesn't pay off. Cordero's men show up just as Millie knew they would. One man and one woman make up the team. They storm the house, and Wilson and Ana manage to get to the down the back stairs to the basement for safety. Ana forgot to lock the front door after the pizza delivery, so they just walk right in--guns a blazing. A shoot out between Wilson and the team results in Wilson somehow wounding the dude, so the woman flees dragging his body back to the car. Wilson let's them leaving hoping this will be the end of it. But, Millie knows, there will be no end to it. He sort of believes her now, at least, that this is serious business. But, he gets it in his mind that he can fly to Puerto Rico and somehow convince Cordero to leave them alone after all these years. His arrogance is not matched, however, by much common sense nor real skill. Shortly, after he finds himself in Cordero's nightclub office. No deal can be made, and he indicates his mother owes him $2 million. He doesn't think she has any where near close to that much money, but what does he really know about their finances except that he's never had to worry a day in his life about money and his mother has never worked. Cordero's men then beat him senseless, and he wakes up in his hotel room. They have let him live. But why? His arrogance and fool-hearty nature doesn't permit him to think about that.
The moment he returns to their new home location, though, Millie knows what's happened. Worse, she knows what's coming. Within seconds she mobilizes guns for them both, and hides Randy in a closet. The shooting begins, and all three are nearly killed. Trained, experienced assailants, however prove no match for her and Wilson Jr.
When it's over, Millie and Wilson decide there is only one way to end this. They leave Randy with Ana, and they head down to Puerto Rico. The same whimsical cab driver, Solomon (Miguel Ángel Suárez), who was always at the right spot at the right time on Wilson's first trip to the island territory, magically appears to take them to their hotel. They spend some time mentally preparing themselves for what's to come with walks on the beach and a nice dinner. For as powerful as Cordero is, he's got no one at the airport, to alert him to their arrival of his most wanted enemy. The next evening, their plan is simple, they will return and take out Cordero. Wilson works his way into Cordero's office in a fashion similar to the one he used before, but his mother sneaks up the back way. As soon as Wilson has Cordero engaged in small talk, Millie will sneak in and shoot him dead. The plan works perfectly, except that the small talk isn't small. Cordero shares that the reason his father had to die was that he was having an affair with Cordero's sister, Mora (Zulay Henao), and got her pregnant. He was not willing, however, to abandon his true love, Millie. So, Mora over-dosed on pills and killed herself. This enraged Cordero, and he had Wilson Sr. (Manny Perez) killed. He then went after everything Wilson Sr. loved including Millie and the baby. Every time he had been unsuccessful. Millie never hears this part of the story though, and after Cordero is dead, Wilson chooses not to tell her this part. Instead he says it was all about the money. They return home to Randy and Ana and what they hope will be a life, finally, at peace.
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