Casa de Mi Padre by Lions Gate

Actors

• Will Ferrell
• Gael García Bernal
• Diego Luna
• Nick Offerman
• Genesis Rodriguez

Format

• AC-3
• Color
• Dolby
• Subtitled
• Widescreen

Editorial Review

Is there any more fearless deadpan actor than Will Ferrell? Ferrell's silly, yet humble and believable turn in the comedy Casa de Mi Padre shows that the answer, mis amigos, is no. Ferrell gives a tour de force performance as an earnest Mexican rancher's son, Armando, whose life is upended when his father dies; his long-lost brother, Raul (the slick Diego Luna), arrives on the scene with his comely fiancée, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez)–and everyone becomes entangled in the web of the local drug lord (Gael García Bernal, looking like he's having the time of his life). If that all sounds a bit too heavy for a comedy, it's to the credit of director Matt Piedmont (a longtime writer for Saturday Night Live), writer Andrew Steele, and their talented cast that Casa de Mi Padre plays like a send-up of a soapy Mexican telenovela through the lens of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. And everyone's rigid poker faces make the direness of the movie's situations seem truly hilarious. There are slapstick visuals galore, all richly filmed in a sensual Latin light, and the intrigue (Armando finds himself falling for the sultry Sonia; the drug lords are intent on invading the ranch) is easily played both for laughs and for real. Casa de Mi Padre is performed largely in Spanish with English subtitles, which adds to the, well, believability isn't quite the right word. But for fans of Will Ferrell, as well as of Latin telenovelas and internationally clever comedy, one need go no further than Casa de Mi Padre —A.T. Hurley