Will Ferrell’s on a wild ride in ‘Casa de Mi Padre’
It’s silly con queso all the way in “Casa de Mi Padre.” The Spanish-language spoof, which stars Will Ferrell as the dim-bulb son of a respected rancher, is a south-of-the-border “Bonanza” with faux-schlocky production values — a goofy mix of cornball earnestness,
telenovela melodrama and, for good measure, magical realism with stuffed animals. And it’s shot in “Mexicoscope,” as the opening credit sequence proclaims.
Those credits are a glorious throwback, promising a high level of genre-bending delirium. There’s the overthe-top graphics (the consuming fire of passion!), the close-up of blood-red lips, the grandiose title song belted out by Christina Aguilera. But the giddy laughs that ensue, though sometimes inspired, are too few and far between.
It’s as if the filmmakers, satisfied to have all the pieces assembled — and to have landed the involvement of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna — are content to simply repeat themselves and hope for the best, not unlike the flying-bullet overkill that subs for true marksmanship in the movie’s slomo shootouts.
Central to the premise is the novelty of an Anglo star speaking Spanish, and Ferrell’s textbook diction mines some yuks. To its credit, the film doesn’t get stuck in that shtick, offering instead the equal-opportunity joke of purposely wooden dialogue for its characters.
Leaving few clichés unturned, to pointed and notso-pointed effect, “Casa” frames itself around the story of Armando (Ferrell), whose formidable father (Pedro Armendáriz Jr., who died in December, and to whom the film is dedicated) is facing money troubles. Hotshot younger brother Raul (Luna) arrives to save the hacienda, flaunting his “international business” acumen and his girlfriend, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez).
A beauty with a troubled past, she puts the mismatched brothers in the sights of a drug kingpin known as the Onza (García Bernal). Amid revelations of accidental matricide and incestuous intent, much smoking and emoting ensue.
It’s good to see Luna and García Bernal hamming it up, but the chemistry between these longtime compadres could have been exploited further. A lot of the film unrolls like wasted opportunities, placeholders between the cheesy musical interludes and ludicrous Peckinpah-esque violence.
In their first theatrical feature, screenwriter Andrew Steele and director Matt Piedmont, both accomplices of Ferrell on “SNL” and Funny or Die, excel more at set up than follow-through. Ferrell’s tres stooges bit with a couple of ranch hands (Adrian Martinez and Efren Ramirez) is a prime example of creative energy left untapped.
Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”), perhaps the funniest man on broadcast television, is underused as a bigoted DEA agent.
The slyest thing about “Casa” is that Pantelion Films, a joint venture of Lionsgate and Grupo Televisa that bills itself as Hollywood’s first Latino studio, is luring Ferrell’s considerable fan base to a subtitled movie. The picture also plays on cross-border paranoia by pushing stereotypes to ridiculous extremes.
An argument for empathy runs through the narcomayhem absurdity, but like much of the proceedings, it’s a loose thread.