MOVIES . . . "THE PEREZ FAMILY"

After twenty years in a Cuban prison, Juan Perez (Alfred Molina) is released during the amnesty and boatlift of 1980. On the boat to Miami, where his wife has waited patiently for his release, Juan meets Dottie Perez (Marisa Tomei), no relation. The meeting changes his life. Dottie is mistaken for Juan's wife by an overtaxed immigration official, and, since relatives have a better chance of being sponsored out of the camps, she decides to exploit the situation to its fullest. TIME critic Richard Schickel says you have to treasure "The Perez Family," a movie that "is full of lifelike bestartlements but still comes out kind of nice in the end."

---