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BY PETER KEOUGH
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First-time director Peter Sollett’s Raising Victor Vargas begins with bluster and ends with innocence, if not regained then at least recognized. Victor (Victor Rasuk) is at first so crudely callow that I almost wrote off the whole movie. Caught in the sack with "Fat Donna," this would-be 15-year-old lothario of the Lower East Side barrio tries to redeem his reputation by hitting on the neighborhood beauty, the icy and aloof "Juicy Judy" Ramirez (Judy Marte). His secret to success with women? As he explains to his virginal though otherwise almost identical-looking younger brother Carlos (Wilfree Vasquez), "Lick your lips." What a pig. Fortunately, this phase is temporary, and Victor’s callous attitude is not shared by Sollett, who shows us his hero’s more vulnerable side, beginning with an unconventional family dominated by a grandmother (Altagracia Guzman) at least as dotty as the one in Greek Wedding and a lot more believable. In true romantic-comedy fashion, the antithetical Victor and Judy smooth over each other’s rough edges, uncovering not stereotypes but ingenuous souls experiencing love for the first time. Sollett, for his part, leaves his edges rough — the film is at its best when it seems least under control — and the Victor he raises is an unexpected delight. At the Avon.
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