If you want an amiable fable, this soccer saga is your only hombre, writes DONALD CLARKE
My Mexican adviser, Dr Interneto, informs me that the title of this larksome comedy from the Y Tu Mamá Tambiénsquad translates as "Tough and Corny" (or something similar). Rudo and Cursi are also the main characters' nicknames and, yes, Diego Luna offers stoic solidity as Rudi while Gael García Bernal oozes cheese as the bumbling Cursi. The title does, however, also say something about the film itself.
Set largely in Mexico City, Rudo y Cursimay take the odd violent turn, but a bubbling sentimental undercurrent reassures the viewer that nothing too ghastly is going to befall our heroes. In short, its toughness never gets in the way of its agreeable corniness.
Comparisons with Y Tu Mamá Tambiénare unavoidable. The director of Rudo y Cursi, Carlos Cuarón, co-wrote the earlier picture with Alfonso, his elder brother, and the senior sibling returns here as a producer. Moreover, Luna and Bernal were, of course, two of Y Tu Mamá'smany attractive stars.
There is also something neatly complementary about the two stories. Whereas the breakthrough picture followed a bunch of posh kids as they ventured into the wilderness, here the action concerns two lads from the country and their adventures in the big city.
The picture begins with Tato (García Bernal) and Beto (Luna), two brothers, living a poor but decent life in some humble settlement by the coast. One day a sleazy football agent happens into town and spots the two boys kicking up a storm on the local pitch. Beto is an impressively unyielding goalkeeper. Tato is an artful and prolific striker. But, sadly, the man in the hat can only offer one footballer a trip to the city. The two boys have a penalty competition to decide who will go and, following a botched attempt to fix the result, Tato joins the entrepreneur in his vulgar sports car.
Now, we all now what happens when the bumpkin makes it to the big smoke. Before long, Tato, who really fancies a career in music, has acquired a gold-digging girlfriend, an enormous house and an even bigger car. He records a version of the Cheap Trick hit I Want You to Want Me– the absurd video is a hoot – and by the time his brother secures a place playing for a rival team, Tato has made every dumb mistake short of trading his cow for magic beans.
Beto then proceeds to gamble away his earnings and, as he closes in on the record for most clean sheets, hoodlums demand that he throws an important game. Guess who is playing for the other team.
Some Mexican critics have objected to the film’s depiction of the Mexican peasant as a grunting bumpkin with no more wit than a donkey. Apparently, the accents are all wrong and neither Luna nor García Bernal has the right features for the relevant locale.
To the outside viewer, these criticisms seem about as useful as those occasionally directed at, say, The Quiet Man. Dealing in broad comic archetypes, Rudo y Cursiis closer to a fairy tale than it is to dirty realism. If you want grit and social commentary, have a glance at Amores Perros. If you want an amiable fable, then Rudo y Cursiis your only hombre.
Casting a beautiful orange glow over the countryside and a flinty darkness about the city, Cuarón demonstrates a firm grasp of his chosen genre’s broad vocabulary. But it is the two main performances that really make the film fly. García Bernal, in particular, showcases a real genius for amiable stupidity. If it takes a generous mastermind to play a selfish moron and make that selfish moron likeable then Gael may just be the most munificent genius on the planet.
Reward his impressive work by viewing his fine film. Goaaaaaal!
