Struggling boxer Frank Diaz (Leguizamo) hasn't won in a while, and his day labor jobs aren't paying the bills. As autumn approaches, he finds himself evicted from his apartment, leaving him, his wife Angela (Leonor Varela), his nine-year-old stepson Justin (David Castro), and his even younger stepdaughter Christina (Samantha M. Rose) homeless and at the mercy of New York's famously dirty, scary, and dangerous shelter system.
Three months later, it's Christmas Eve, and Frank gets word of an available apartment in the Bronx. He races there with Justin in tow and is overjoyed until he discovers that he has to have an on-the-books job in order to qualify as a tenant. The race to find a job begins with only hours to spare.
Frank and Justin's grim slog through a sleet-soaked winter afternoon ends up involving shoplifting, turnstile jumping, lying, various humiliations, and a sprained ankle, but as the day winds down, they have no success and are reduced to begging in front of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree (a scene brings back memories of the climax of Home Alone 2). As the worst day of his life ends, Frank will likely be unable to provide his family with anything remotely resembling a merry Christmas unless there's a holiday miracle of truly cinematic proportions.
The problem here is in the way the film goes through rapid tonal shifts from pathos to comedy. Frank and Justin bicker amusingly throughout the day until the exhausted and hungry boy finally melts into tears and wails to Frank, 'Do you love me?' in a particularly maudlin moment. And then there's the major plot hole: Once we realize that Frank is illiterate and therefore unable to fill out an application for a job or an apartment, the obvious question is why his wife isn't hitting the pavement while he stays at the shelter and looks after the kids. Perhaps it's just paternal pride.
The cast does what it can with the material (watch for a stinging cameo by Jerry Ferrara, Entourage's Turtle), and young David Castro is a natural and a real standout, but you won't get much out of Where God Left His Shoes other than an appreciation of the fact that you have a home for the holidays.
He left them in the car.
