Rudo Y Cursi (2009)
Rudo Y Cursi (2009): 3.6/10
I am going to try to make my reviews a bit shorter from now on because I have so much schoolwork coming up and a lot to do. As it is I have had to multitask by doing some of my art while watching films or looking at GRE words while watching films. Of course I am getting nowhere with that. Any ways…
The success that Rudo Y Cursi might have imbedded in it can be attributed to one element only. The remarkable chemistry between actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Barnal, best friends in reality and last seen on screen together 8 years ago in Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien. They play brothers in this film, directed by Alfonso’s brother Carlos. The plot concerns two brothers who live in a Mexican village and spend their free time playing soccer with neighboring villagers. Beto aka Rudo (Luna) is the goalkeeper and has dreams of becoming a famous sport star. Tato aka Cursi (Barnal) is an offense player and has dreams of becoming a famous singer. One day a talent scout drops by and offers Tato representation. Eventually the talent scout takes Beto too and they are both dealing with fame and the problems that come with it.
Cuaron’s direction shows a lot of promise as he knows where to place the camera and how to keep the focus on the brothers’ relationship even when things get complicated and they are dealing with their own separate arcs for a while. As I said before, the chemistry between the two leads is striking. They real life friendship shines through as they reliably play off of each other for maximum effect. They really do feel like brothers. The last successful element was Leoncio Lara’s score which both suited the film well and stood out in a good way.
That being said, the film is neither dramatic enough nor funny enough to leave any sort of impact. With all of the successful Comedy-Dramas out there this one is really mediocre and fails to make any sort of impact. The film just sort of exists and sits there not doing much. The story itself is very familiar and brings absolutely nothing new to the table. It is easy to tell the structure of the film pretty quickly and getting to the end is not particularly interesting.
The film is supposedly a sports film but denies the claim throughout due to its lack of sports content, only deciding in the last 25 minutes that it is going to be a sports film as Rudo and Cursi deal with their emotional turbulence on the field. The switch to sports film is a bit jarring and the film gets even less interesting in these final moments. The talent scout also plays the role of narrator. The sports analogies work for a while but after about an hour, it becomes evident that the narrator’s presence should have been much less prominent if every time his voice is heard, we get another sport analogy.
All in all Rudo Y Cursi certainly is not a bad film but it is a very uninteresting one. It brings nothing new to a familiar story and manages to be neither very funny nor very dramatic. The only truly notable aspect is the stars Luna and Barnal who shine in the film and provide the only funny moments within it. Without them, I would have been bored to tears.
