I have nothing but respect when actors or filmmakers take risks, and this was a risk on Will Ferrell's part. Ferrell is already a hit-or-miss comic actor, with a few great movies under his belt and just as many forgettable. For every ANCHORMAN there's a LAND OF THE LOST. I'm not the biggest fan of his movies but when's he good, he's good. I was happy to see Ferrell had the nerve to release a small movie, low budget with deliberately poor production value, and completely in Spanish. In a time when so many American moviegoers refuse to sit through a movie they'll need to "read", you've got to love what you do to go against the grain with a film like CASA DE MI PADRE. Good for Ferrell and his film buddies for doing the movie, and the best part is
I actually enjoyed it. Well, not at first. The movie is done in the style of Mexican/Spanish telenovelas. It's a feature length soap opera/Spanish western, and I know that alone will turn some people off. It is the tale of Armando Alvarez (Ferrell), a simple ranchero working on his father's land when his beloved brother Raul makes a triumphant return to their homestead with exciting news. Raul (Diego Luna) is to be married to the beautiful Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez) and he has plans to revive his father's dying ranch. But with the dangerous drug lord La Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal) moving in on their land, Armando discovers that his brother might not be as noble as he believed.
This movie needed an extra viewing to really grow on me. I wasn't impressed the first time, believing it to be a one note joke dragged out to feature length (Will Ferrell speaking Spanish
poorly. I can hardly contain my laughter.) But, really, there is a lot of hilarious stuff here. It's just subtler than I was expecting. The best bits are a lot of the little things. Sure, there're some blatantly funny parts, especially with the deliberate poor production value. Painted backdrops, obvious sets, obvious props, rear projection, etc. But then there are the little things. Raul never without a cigarette and drink in his hands, even in the midst of a violent gun battle. Armando can't roll a cigarette to save his life (although the commentary with Ferrell reveals that he can, in fact, roll a cigarette
just not when he's trying to remember his lines in another language). The melodrama, the cheesy line delivery
it's great. The opening of the movie sets the tone perfectly: Ferrell in a field with his fellow rancheros and a herd of cattle. Ferrell stoically dismounts from his horse and approaches a small brown calf
the scene cuts to a new angle as he bends down to pick it up and he rises with a blatantly fake black calf as he stares dramatically into the sun. Boom
cut to the trippy, James Bond-ish opening titles with none other than Christina Aguilera singing. It didn't win me over at first, but I love it now.
I have to give Ferrell credit: there are times when he almost sounds fluent in his Spanish. I love his musical numbers. He's a perfect balance of serious and absurd, though I hate to say we're treated to an abundance of Ferrell butt shots. I could've done without that. The rest of the cast is even better. Diego Luna is solid gold as Raul with swagger and confidence, and Genesis Rodriguez (an actress with an actual history in Spanish soap operas) is both amazingly beautiful and the only one giving her role an honest try. She gives the movie it's biggest dose of dramatic performing, taking her role 100% serious amongst all of the bizarre. And then there's Gael Garcia Bernal
.this dude is hilarious. Easily the funniest part of the movie in my opinion. Again, he's not outright goofball in his performance as the movie's villain, La Onza. It's the little quirks here and there that he tosses in. He had me laughing harder than anything else at times. All the more reason it's a shame that a lot of people will probably skip this movie because of it's strange premise and it's use of Spanish with English subtitles. You don't have to be familiar with telenovelas to enjoy it; I certainly wasn't. A passing familiarity with them and an open mind is enough to enjoy CASA DE MI PADRE, one of Ferrell's better films.
