The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez Review

The movie starts of like a western and immediately has Ernest Borgnine on a toilet. The film is almost family friendly if there wasn't so much forced racism. The story sets Ernest as an actor whose never "made it", but has made it with a loving family. He gets sent to a elder care facility that has a predictable bad element. It starts off fun, but gets weaker as it trickles down. It's a drama with some comedic elements.

I kind of wished Director Eli Petridis just stuck with a western and didn't put in the lifetime lesson about family or tacked on racism. Ernest Borgnine starts off racist, but when someone else acts racist he suddenly isn't and is offended? The main bad guy is an elderly white man who have a Latino  corner-cutting doctor working for them, but isn't racist to him, just all the other staff?

The title is only a subplot of the story that really didn't concern most of what was happening. Borgnine shook hands with a famous musician and it fascinated the staff, he kept telling the story over and over again getting attention with it, which he wanted as an actor. Yet, that's not the main story only a little part of it.

Director Elia shows she can direct, but having a more thoughtful story that isn't so sappy might have been more entertaining. I'd rank it as a made for TV drama movie.