Casa De Mi Padre -DVD-

Product Description Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has lived and worked on his father's ranch in Mexico his entire life. As the ranch encounters financial difficulties, Armando's younger brother Raul (Diego Luna) shows up with his new fiancee, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). It seems that Raul's success as an international businessman means the ranch's troubles are over as he pledges to settle all debts his father has incurred. But when Armando falls for Sonia, and Raul's business dealings turn out to be less than legit, all hell breaks loose as they find themselves in a war with Mexico's most feared drug lord, the mighty Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal). Amazon.com 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