The Last Movie I Saw

While in LA last week, I took the opportunity to catch a foreign film (sadly, such opportunities are rare in SW Montana). I had several to choose from, and at least partly because I liked Y Tu Mama Tambien from a few years ago, picked one that reunited the two stars of that earlier film, Diego Luna (on the left above) and Gael Garcia Bernal (on the right), namely Rudo y Cursi. The film was directed by Carlos Cuaron, brother of Alphonso (who directed the earlier picture as well as the more recent Children of Men), who produced this picture along with the other two titans of contemporary Mexican cinema Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Alejandro Inarratu (Babel). That's some awfully high-powered talent all the way around, and although Rudo y Cursi is kind of low key in its manner of story-telling, the talent certainly raises it above the ordianry. The title characters are step-brothers who work on a banana farm but are discovered by a talent scout who sees them play soccer and brings them to the big city. It's by turns funny and sentimental, but never maudlin. The brothers don't end up being changed much by their new experiences, but in a way are drawn closer together as a result. Along the way, Cuaron has some fun at the expense of vapid celebrity, "traditional" values, and even the drug trade, but one never loses sight of the fact that he is dealing with real human beings, and not caricatures or stereotypes. It's an enjoyable film that surprised me with the various turns in the story, not because they were out-of-the-blue so much as they were more consistent with the way things typically happen in real life (only not so much in the movies), not least in that the characters can do unlikable things and yet retain a degree of appeal and charm because you've come to know them well enough to anticipate and accept their shortcomings as part of the well-rounded whole. Definitely worth seeing, I think, if you get the chance.