I enjoyed Rudo y Cursi, directed by Carlos Cuaron, but it's hardly a ground breaking work of art. I might describe it as a pleasant way to while away a couple of hours but it's fairly lightweight.
The story follows the fortunes of two banana plantation workers in Mexico who are 'discovered' by a football scout Batuta (and by football I mean the game that the whole world barring America calls football, ie soccer) and taken to play in the Big City, in this case, Mexico City. The moral of the story is be careful what you wish for. Escaping a mundane life of dull mediocrity and relative poverty in the countryside, our heroes find the life of a professional soccer player a mixed blessing and never reach their full potential, but instead slip into bad habits and totally lose any semblance of self discipline they ever had.
Rudo harbors delusions that he can be a pop star (fabulous scenes of Gael Garcia Bernal making a music video! Probably worth the ticket price alone .) and Cursi cannot escape his gambling habit. Caught in a cycle of debt, Cursi must 'throw' a match to keep creditors off his back, while Rudo must win to keep his career on track, or sink without trace back into the obscurity from which they both came. His woman has already dumped him and moved on.
Overseeing all this, with an air of Latin American Magic Realism, is the world weary scout Batuta (Guillermo Francella).
The movie features nice performances from Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. If Gael Garcia Bernal isn't one of the cutest guys on the planet, then I don't know who is? And not only is his face fabulous to look at for extended periods of time, but he can act and I also get the feeling he has a sense of humour and can laugh at himself just a little, an asset I always find attractive! There is a wonderful scene of Rudo – and Bernal is not the tallest guy in movies – pants around his ankles having sex in his kitchen with his leggy girlfriend who is built like a giraffe. There aren't many actors willing to make themselves look that undignified, but it's a priceless attribute! Cursi meanwhile, is being outshone by his wife Tona (Adriana Paz) who has taken advantage of his migration to the city to launch her own career. But unable to escape his gambling, he falls into the clutches of creditors.
It's an interesting but fairly superficial look at a culture where soccer is a cut throat game to be won at all costs, a way of life and an escape from poverty, as well as a game of skill and beauty. As a pairing of Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, I much preferred Y tu Mama Tambien, which I felt was a film with much more substance. But Rudo y Cursi whiled away a not unpleasant two hours on a Friday evening. Rent it if you missed it in theatres.
The story follows the fortunes of two banana plantation workers in Mexico who are 'discovered' by a football scout Batuta (and by football I mean the game that the whole world barring America calls football, ie soccer) and taken to play in the Big City, in this case, Mexico City. The moral of the story is be careful what you wish for. Escaping a mundane life of dull mediocrity and relative poverty in the countryside, our heroes find the life of a professional soccer player a mixed blessing and never reach their full potential, but instead slip into bad habits and totally lose any semblance of self discipline they ever had.
Rudo harbors delusions that he can be a pop star (fabulous scenes of Gael Garcia Bernal making a music video! Probably worth the ticket price alone .) and Cursi cannot escape his gambling habit. Caught in a cycle of debt, Cursi must 'throw' a match to keep creditors off his back, while Rudo must win to keep his career on track, or sink without trace back into the obscurity from which they both came. His woman has already dumped him and moved on.
Overseeing all this, with an air of Latin American Magic Realism, is the world weary scout Batuta (Guillermo Francella).
The movie features nice performances from Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. If Gael Garcia Bernal isn't one of the cutest guys on the planet, then I don't know who is? And not only is his face fabulous to look at for extended periods of time, but he can act and I also get the feeling he has a sense of humour and can laugh at himself just a little, an asset I always find attractive! There is a wonderful scene of Rudo – and Bernal is not the tallest guy in movies – pants around his ankles having sex in his kitchen with his leggy girlfriend who is built like a giraffe. There aren't many actors willing to make themselves look that undignified, but it's a priceless attribute! Cursi meanwhile, is being outshone by his wife Tona (Adriana Paz) who has taken advantage of his migration to the city to launch her own career. But unable to escape his gambling, he falls into the clutches of creditors.
It's an interesting but fairly superficial look at a culture where soccer is a cut throat game to be won at all costs, a way of life and an escape from poverty, as well as a game of skill and beauty. As a pairing of Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, I much preferred Y tu Mama Tambien, which I felt was a film with much more substance. But Rudo y Cursi whiled away a not unpleasant two hours on a Friday evening. Rent it if you missed it in theatres.