SPOILERS -- The ending -- SPOILERS
This was a pretty intense movie, but the ending makes no sense on so many levels.
1. I find it impossible to believe that tussling a poverty stricken street kid's hair or any other fleeting sentimental moment the lead character had with any of the street kids could possibly hold a candle to what he had already experienced with his daughter, his own flesh and blood.
2. Just open your daily newspaper. Those Mexican doctors aren't kidding. People die in Juarez every day. Many of the street kids end up turning to a life of crime. That means that even if that little guy survives, there's a chance he'll end up a cartel member, a criminal, murderer, thief, etc... whereas on the other hand, the daughter of an upper middle class American family would have the opportunity to become a more useful member of society.
3. The lead character is already indirectly involved in the deaths of other characters in the story. So I guess he feels no remorse for anyone who isn't a child. It's not that he values human life, it's that he's afraid of feeling guilty -- which makes no sense considering his career in the states.
4. Mexico needs to rebuild itself from within. After seeing the amount of corruption in Juarez, why would the lead character think for one second that his decision could possibly be the right one or that his actions would have any positive implications for the little boy's life? He risked everything to save his daughter and ended up risking his daughter to save NOTHING.
In fact, the only empathetic character, or moment of empathy for that matter, I had in the entire film was with the way the wife looks at the main character with contempt/shock/heartache when they bury their daughter.
This film sucks because of its ending. It isn't ironic. It isn't altruistic. It's just ludicrous. It makes no sense. No father would ever make that decision, ESPECIALLY not in the circumstances of this story.
The only lesson I've learned here is that Hollywood studios are losing their moral compass for the sake of being politically correct towards minorities. Seriously, that's the bottom line here. In the end it's almost as if the lead character has to make a decision based on race/nationality/class instead of doing what's RIGHT, what's HUMANE and what's LOGICAL. The writers could have written a different ending, one more complex but worthy of our empathy -- instead they chose the easy, uber-liberal way out. Talk about selling out.
Stupid, stupid ending. I want those two hours back.