Although the core of the story is rather simplistic and even predictable, there is enough specificity and charm here to keep interest - the depiction of many types of Mexican families, life in the 1980s there, and even the feelings of teenaged life. You aren't supposed to love everyone, you're supposed to understand them, and I do. I am not so fast to call this magical realism. Instead it seems a less mystic, more personal, fantasy. The pop music alone makes me feel that way.