I have to admit, I'm not as big a fan of Will Ferrell as Marvin is. But there was something about his spring film offering Casa de Mi Padre that made me want to watch it.
I mean, there has to be something special about a film that made Will Ferrell decide to star in a Spanish language film, which meant that he had to learn how to speak the language. And it has to be special if the cast includes Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, who both hail from the critically acclaimed Y Tu Mamá También.
And then I watched the trailer. It was campy and reminiscent of every Mexican telenovela cliche that you could possibly think of. I was hooked and I couldn't wait to watch it.
Unfortunately, since the film was low budget in standards, there was no chance in hell for a simultaneous worldwide release, I didn't know when they were planning to show it locally. Heck, they might have already shown it and I wouldn't have had a clue given that there's no buzz. So, I patiently waited until I could get my hands on a copy.
Armando Álvarez (Will Ferrell) has always worked on his father's ranch. Considered to be stupid and clumsy, Armando is used to being ridiculed by his family members and always being compared to his brother Raul (Diego Luna). Raul comes home with the promise to settle all of his father's debts and a fiancee, the beautiful Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). While he feels attraction towards Sonia, Armando questions her motives for marrying Raul, who has established himself as a successful businessman. A series of events soon lead Armando to realize that his brother is not the entrepreneur that he made himself out to be and they find themselves at odds with the drug lord Onza (Gael García Bernal).
Ever since I first saw the hilarious trailer of Casa de Mi Padre, I knew that it wasn't meant to become a mainstream hit. Yet, I never got a feeling that Will Ferrell was working towards that. To me, it felt as if he just wanted to make a movie that would utilize the various cliches (mostly the bad ones) that you would recognize from old Mexican telenovelas. In fact, it feels like he made the movie just for fun. And that reason alone makes the film worth watching for me.
While I understand the importance of making money to signify success in the film industry, it's refreshing to watch a movie that isn't focused solely on that. Casa de Mi Padre could have marketed to bank on the popularity of its lead, but was instead relegated to a limited release last spring. The film focuses on telling a story, albeit a story that follows a template narrative that we must have already watched hundreds of times and replete with cliches at that. Both elements strive to bring us something familiar, but offers a fresh reaction in the form of in-your-face comedy. There's nothing overbearing at Will Ferrell's overt attempts to make us laugh.
The cliches, while abundant, are well placed and will elicit laughs from those who endured (or enjoyed) hours of afternoon and primetime viewings of telenovelas in their younger years (or even their more mature ones). You can expect over acting, setup to a building passion, unnecessary explosions, over dramatized gun fights, stuffed animal replacements and lengthy confrontations in great quantity. The badly edited scenes are laughable, but you know that they were put there so you can gleefully point out how badly they transitioned from one scene to another.
And the cast is fantastic. Everyone performed their roles with aplomb and I can only imagine the sheer amount of professionalism (or cliff hanging determination) that they exercised to keep from laughing every time they had to act out their ridiculously cliched characters.
Casa de Mi Padre moves along in its own speed, sometimes pausing to create hilarious/awkward tension or for the scenes to suddenly launch into random musical numbers. It will never win awards, nor do I think it would earn a place in the highest grossing film list. In fact, I think the film just about broke even.
Yet, I highly recommend that you take the time to watch it. Especially if you don't want a movie that will make you work hard just so you can have something to laugh about. That is, if you can just accept the silliness of everything, which I assure you pays off in the end.
I'm just sorry that I missed out on what was supposed to be the greatest animal fight scene of all time.
Curious? Then you should watch Casa de Mi Padre.
I assure you that you will miss out on watching that scene, too.
But that's just fine... as long as you get to watch the rest of the film.
Happy viewing!!Labels: Casa de Mi Padre, Comedy, Film, Must-Watch
