Casa de Mi Padre – Film Review

Director: Matt Piedmont

Starring: Will Ferrell, Genesis Rodriguez, Diego Luna and Gael Garcìa Bernal

Distributor: Alliance Films

Will Ferrell is an actor that can divide audiences like no other. Even his very best work in films such as Anchorman has been criticized by people who don’t ‘get’ his sense of humor. This humor is often crude, brash, in-your-face and often completely unswayed by political correctness. Casa de Mi Padre goes down a very familiar route, the kind that is completely idiosyncratic to Ferrell’s previous escapades.

The central hook with this particular film is the fact that it is a spoof of the overly dramatic telenovela, a type of serial programme that is very popular in Spanish television. It features Will Ferrell as Armando, a worker on his fathers ranch. When his brother, Raul, returns home with his new fiancèe Sonia, all hell breaks loose as Armando becomes infatuated with her and the family become entangled with some notorious drug dealers.

It is an awkward moment for everybody when someone is trying to explain something funny that happened to them the other day, but the delivery just doesn’t land. You can clearly see how the circumstances would be funny, but it is obvious that it was something you just had to be there for to fully appreciate. Casa de Mi Padre is best described as one of those kinds of stories.

As a spoof, nothing is serious, so naturally the narrative isn’t really something the audience can rely on to keep them interested. That responsibility lies solely with the gags. An enormous amount of emphasis is put on the fact that the film is badly made, with characters often being replaced with mannequins, very obvious backdrops and terrible cuts that feature blatant continuity errors. It’s so very odd that, while the jokes are all coming from the same bag of tricks, some of them land and others don’t.

For example, one cut features an apologetic note from the film makers, explaining how one particular scene couldn’t be shown in cinemas for being too violent. It’s a cheap move, but it actually works and will get a good laugh. Another has the camera focusing, for what really should feel like too long a time, on Armando and his friends acting like stereotypical gringos. Again, not comedy genius, but very funny due both to the casts aggressiveness and a prolonged shot.

These are in fact rare occasions of humor, as the majority of the film is only funny in theory. Fake horses and obvious town models are amusing, but hardly worthy of big laughs. Ferrell acts his character in the way that he always does, as being dull witted but passionate at selected moments. Many of his previous characters tend to blend together seamlessly, with the possible exception of Ron Burgundy, but his character here is one of the most forgettable of all. If it weren’t for the novelty of him speaking Spanish, he would be almost indiscernible from his character in Step-Brothers.

The rest of the cast are in actuality given some good material to work with. Bernal, as the drug lord Onza, is well cast and is given a great introduction in a Spanish bar.

Armando’s rancher friends, Estaban and Manuel (depicted by Efren Ramirez and Adrian Martinez respectively) are also given some great material to work with, but are completely underused due to the fact that they share all of their screen time with Ferrell. Other characters are type-cast, depicting their roles in a satisfactory manner, but are in no way spectacular or memorable.

Overall, Casa de Mi Padre is a film that just can’t deliver the laughs that its concept promises. Adamant Ferrellites may defend the film, insisting on it’s hilarity, whereas anyone who finds the comedian irritating will probably find all of his worst traits strongly emphasized here. Those with an open mind will simply consider it an unfortunately missed opportunity, a fun concept with bad delivery.

Score: 2/5

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