Quick Review – Casa de Mi Padre

Posted in life after cable by - March 13, 2012
Quick Review – Casa de Mi Padre

So, it is exactly what it says on the tin. Will Ferrell as a blundering manchild, like usual, but this time he blunders about entirely in Spanish. Shot in the style of 80s mexican television, complete with musical numbers, double exposures and some of the most endearingly faux-threadbare special effects since ‘Black Dynamite’.

It could pretty easily have been just a stunt, and 90 minutes of Ferrell stumbling through Spanish dialogue could easily have grown tiresome. I have to confess, however, to being charmed by the cast’s dogged adherence to the wacky premise.

Ferrell’s Armando is a the dimwit som of a wealthy rancher. He’s a 40 year old virgin who still lives at home and spends his days riding along with the hired hands. He witnesses a murder committed by the notorious narco ‘La Onze’ on the family spread. His brother returns, a changed and dissipated figure with a suspiciously beautiful companion, and the wheels start grinding towards Armando’s graduation into manhood on several fronts at once.

Gael Garcia Bernal is delightful as the heavy, and Nick Offerman has a stellar turn as a DEA agent.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re right to assume that this is the kind of project that only gets the green light when the star has too much power for anyone to tell him no. In this case, however, the result is more than unpleasant self-indulgence (see ‘Vampire in Brooklyn’, ‘Harlem Nights’ et.al.). There’s some real love for the genre being sent up, and some real effort put into creating fun characters. They could have coasted, and I’m pleased they didn’t. Well, except for that dude who played Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite. I don’t know what’s going on there.

Also there’s a visionquest scene. I’m a sucker for visionquest scenes.

This post was written by MisterDee

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