Casa de mi Padre
Starring Will Ferrell, Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal
Directed by Matt Piedmont
Caught in the middle of a Mexican drug war, Will Ferrell must do what he can in order to protect both his father’s ranch as well as his family’s name. But when he falls in love with his brother’s fiance, he must take the battle to the drug lord and risk alienating his brother.
Spoken almost entirely in Spanish, Casa de mi Padre serves as a spoof of bad Mexican films. While most American audiences won’t be familiar with the subject being made fun of, there is a large number of Latinos and savvy movie fans that will find the pic very funny. And even if you don’t know the genre well, the humor is broad enough that you will at the very least have a good laugh.
While Ferrell doesn’t actually speak Spanish in real life, you’d never know from watching this movie. You can’t say the acting is good, but for what they were trying to accomplish – it was perfect. Pretending to be a bad actor can be a feat as difficult as being a good one and Ferrell and crew have that skill down here. Also, it was fun watching Luna and Bernal get back together, lovingly mocking low-budget Mexican cinema.
There is part of me that thinks that this film is just one joke taken way too far. Like it’s a Saturday Night Live sketch made 80 minutes too long. But frankly, I left the theater after having enjoyed myself and with a mere $6 million dollar budget, this movie was never meant to be the box office smash we are used to with Ferrell’s films. It’s just a delightfully clever bit of entertainment whose faults are acceptable. B-